Quote:Israeli media reported on Sunday that the Biden administration has offered Israel a “compensation package” in exchange for refraining from attacks on a list of specific targets in Iran.

“The package would include a total guarantee of comprehensive diplomatic protection as well as a weapons package and was offered directly in return for holding off on striking certain targets in Iran,” said a report from Israel’s Kan11 news cited by the Jerusalem Post.

“An American official said, ‘If you don’t hit targets A, B, C, we will provide you with diplomatic protection and an arms package,’” said Kan11’s Amichai Stein.

According to Stein, the Israeli government was somewhat cool to the proposal, although it remains in active consultation with the U.S. government and military about its response to Iran’s missile attack last week.

“Israeli officials responded saying, ‘We consider the United States and listen to them. But we will do anything and everything we can to protect the citizens and the security of the State of Israel,’” said Stein.

Iran launched over 180 missiles at Israel last Tuesday night, ostensibly in response to Israel killing Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Quote:The sudden declaration that the United Kingdom is surrendering a chain of strategic islands was forced by the Biden administration that wanted it done before the November election, a British newspaper reports.

Last week, the British government shocked the world by announcing it was handing over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), also known as the Chagos Islands, to Mauritius. The largest of these islands is Diego Garcia is best known for hosting a large U.S.-UK military base, providing support to long-range bombers, warships, as well as observation and signals intelligence across the ocean into Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The Mauritius claim on the land was long treated as unserious but the UK has suddenly moved towards accepting them in recent years and even opened talks to discuss matters under the last Conservative government, although this was controversial among Tories then. While there was no prospect of a quick decision, the matter seems to suddenly have been resolved within a matter of weeks after the last UK general election despite it not having been discussed during that election, there having been no parliamentary debate, and no public consultation on what is a major change to the United Kingdom.

Now a report in Britain’s The Daily Telegraph claims that far from simply being a matter of whim to the recently elected left-wing British government, the issue was in fact pushed by Joe Biden’s White House.

The paper asserts “senior officials” from the U.S. National Security Council and State Department ” told the incoming Labour government that refusing to sign away the islands would jeopardise the “special relationship” with Washington.”

Of this alleged blackmail, the Biden White House is alleged to have told the UK that: “a quick deal should be signed before the American and Mauritian elections next month”. The American position is allegedly borne of concern Mauritius would attempt to use international law to try and force the Islands out of Britain’s hands anyway, leading to the loss of the base. Under the agreement announced last week but not revealed in any detail, the UK and U.S. get a 99-year lease on the Diego Garcia base, but concerns about Chinese influence on the Mauritius government and even their possibly being able to establish their own listening posts on other nearby islands persist.

While this latest claim contradicts earlier reports that London was cautioned by Washington D.C., it is a rare day when a national capital speaks with one voice and the elected government and the well-embedded deep state of many democratic nations are often opposed on such matters. Indeed, on the BIOT-Chagos Islands question, both positions are congruous with past U.S. foreign policy, to have strategic bases on one hand, and to be the shepherding hand of European decolonisation on the other.

Quote:Pro-Palestinian protests are marking the first anniversary of the October 7 terror attack against Israel in several American cities, including a weekend demonstration in Los Angeles and a protest set for Monday in New York.

In Los Angeles, as described by the Los Angeles Times, hundreds of protesters shouted genocidal slogans as they marched through the city on Saturday. One protester was arrested for vandalizing police headquarters.

The Times, describing the protest as “largely peaceful,” noted:

Hundreds of demonstrators held a pro-Palestinian rally in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, chanting “Free Palestine” and “Long live the intifada” as they protested Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon while marching from Pershing Square to City Hall.

The largely peaceful demonstration came two days before the anniversary of Oct. 7, when Hamas militants in Gaza attacked Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages.
…
At City Hall, a protest leader led the crowd in a chant of “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!” Banners read “End the Siege of Gaza” and “Hands Off Yemen.”

In New York City, pro-Palestinian protests are planned for October 7 itself, with students from a dozen colleges expected to walk out of classes and join demonstrations, according to the New York Daily News.

Pro-Israel groups have also been holding commemorations over the weekend, and will continue to do so Monday, though these gatherings have been quiet, and small, due to security concerns.

Quote:Monday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Hannity,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) excoriated Vice President Kamala Harris for injecting herself into his state’s storm preparation as Category 5 Hurricane Milton approaches the Sunshine State.

DeSantis was reacting to comments from Harris, who called the Florida governor “selfish” to reporters.

“[F]or Kamala Harris, to try to say that my sole focus on the people of Florida is somehow selfish is delusional,” he said. “She has no role in this. In fact she’s been vice president for three-and-a-half years, have dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts. So what I think is selfish – trying to blunder into this – know and here’s the thing – she has no role – know, she has no role in this process, I’m in contact with the president of the United States. I’m in contact with FEMA director. I’m obviously managing a lower state agencies. We’re supporting our local government, and I will say this: I had storms under both President Trump and President Biden, and I work well with both of them.”

“She’s the first who is trying to politicize this storm and she is doing that just because of her campaign. She’s trying to get some type of an edge. She knows she is doing poorly. And so she is playing these political games. I don’t have time for political games. I’ve got people whose lives are on the line. I’ve got people whose homes and their possessions are on the line. And we are focused 100% on that mission. I’m not worried about playing her political games. She is being selfish by trying to blunder into this when we’re working just fine.”

Quote:The office of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday that the Lone Star state will be directing resources to help Florida and Tennessee with hurricane relief efforts.

The governor said that he will direct the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to deploy Texas emergency response and recovery resources to Florida and Tennessee to deal with the damage from Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene.

“Texas is swiftly deploying emergency response personnel and resources to Florida as Hurricane Milton prepares to make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast later this week,” said Gov. Abbott. “I also directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to send additional state resources to Tennessee to assist in recovery efforts for communities impacted by Hurricane Helene.”

“America is stronger when we come together in times of crisis, and Texas will continue to deploy crucial resources to support our fellow Americans as they prepare for and recover from these destructive storms. I thank all the Texas emergency response personnel for their work in Hurricane Helene recovery efforts and for answering the call to support the people of Florida as they brace for Hurricane Milton,” the governor added.

As Breitbart News reported on Monday, Hurricane Milton has “intensified even further after rapidly developing into a major Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).”

Quote:Residents of Tampa, Florida, are being warned that ignoring evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton approaches could result in dire consequences.

During an interview on Monday, Mayor Jane Castor said “I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die,” Axios reported on Tuesday.

Castor also noted that from the looks of the highways, people were heading north to safety:
...
The storm became a Category 5 hurricane on Monday not long after Hurricane Helene hit Florida and several other states.

Meteorologist Rick Davis who works with the National Weather Service in Tampa, shared insight with the New York Times on how this hurricane could affect the area:

The region’s coastal landscape was altered by Helene, he said: Barrier islands were badly damaged, sand dunes were destroyed, sand levels were left “very low” and many of the trees and other natural vegetation that are usually present along beaches were uprooted.
“Just after our latest hurricane, we are extremely vulnerable, especially to surge,” he said.

Hurricane Milton threatens to bring a life-threatening storm surge, wind damage, flooding rainfall, and tornadoes as it nears Florida on Wednesday, the Weather Channel reported on Tuesday.

Quote:Shoppers considering spending some time in retail superstore outlets at the end of next month might need to rethink their strategy.

Walmart will not open on Thanksgiving Day for the fifth consecutive year to enable staff across the country to enjoy some family time, the company announced Monday.

Target is also remaining shuttered on the holiday.

“Walmart stores will be closed once again on Thanksgiving Day so associates can spend the day with their families,” a corporate statement from the outlet announced.

The company has made clear however it is offering its first Holiday Deals event of the season starting in October for customers to get started on their holiday shopping choices.

Target also will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

In a statement last November, Target announced the policy would be permanent.

Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 28.

Quote:An Ohio court rejected a Haitian group’s request for arrest warrants against former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) regarding comments about Haitian migrants.

While a panel of judges referred a case from the Haitian Bridge Alliance against Trump and Vance to county prosecutors, the judges reportedly “found no probable cause” for them to issue arrest warrants or summons for “misdemeanor charges,” city officials explained, according to the Associated Press.

“The matter was then referred to the Clark County prosecutor’s office for further investigation,” Springfield officials said in a statement, according to the outlet.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance is described as being a “non-profit organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies and connects migrants with humanitarian, legal, and social services,” according to the organization’s website.

In September, the group reportedly “invoked a private-citizen right” and filed charges “over the chaos and threats” the Haitian community in Springfield dealt with after Trump issued claims that Haitian migrants were eating cats, dogs, and people’s pets, according to the outlet.

During the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump on September 10, Trump said that Haitian migrants in Springfield were “eating the dogs” and the cats, and “the pets of the people that live there.”

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments came after residents in Springfield alleged that Haitian migrants were taking and eating “ducks” from a local park.

“They’re in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off and walking off with them and eating them,” Anthony Harris claimed during an August 27 city meeting.

A Facebook post also alleged that a Springfield resident’s “friend had lost her cat” and had discovered the cat “hanging from a bran at a Haitian neighbor’s home being carved up to be eaten,” according to the Springfield News-Sun.

While the Springfield police admitted that they were aware of the Facebook post, they revealed that they had not received any reports of any pets being taken or eaten, according to the outlet.

The claims come as over the past four years, the population of Haitian migrants in Springfield has “ballooned to more than 20,000,” Breitbart News’ Warner Todd Huston reported.

Quote:Despite numerous claims by Mexico’s government about a decrease in crime, a group of gunmen beheaded the mayor of the capital city of Guerrero just six days after he took office. The killing sparked much outrage by politicians at the national level since the murder victim hails from one of the parties opposed to Mexico’s ruling party, Morena.

The killing took place on Sunday afternoon when a group of gunmen left the body of Alejandro Arcos Catalan, the new Mayor of Chilpancingo, Guerrero. The gunmen had left his headless body inside a vehicle and his head on top of the vehicle’s roof.
Arcos Catalan’s killing comes just three days after gunmen murdered Chilpancingo’s City Secretary, Francisco Tapia, in a separate attack that has sparked much concern in the city.

The state’s governor, Evelyn Salgado, expressed her outrage at the killing and claimed to have ordered an in-depth investigation. Salgado’s comments appear ironic since she has spent much of her administration claiming that public safety has improved under her administration and the rule of the Morena Party.
...
The killing is expected to turn into a political firestorm for Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum since Arcos Catalan was from an opposition party and had won against a member of the Morena party.

Alejandro Moreno, the leader of the opposition party PRI, quickly took to social media to call for federal authorities to investigate the case, claiming that Guerrero State has been unable to deal with the ongoing security crisis.

Quote:Multiple sources report that a large group of mostly Central and South American migrants departed the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, intending to reach the U.S. border. The group reportedly demanded faster processing of transit permits from the new Mexican government under President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Independent journalist Ali Bradley estimated size of the new migrant caravan to be approximately 6,000 migrants.
...
Videographer Auden Cabello said the migrants expressed frustration with the Biden-Harris CBP One app. Unable to make appointments for border crossings at ports of entry or direct flights into the U.S., the group departed Tapachula, Chiapas, on Saturday and headed for the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
...
“The caravan is currently being escorted by Mexico’s National Guard, state police, and an ambulance,” Cabello reported. “Authorities are offering migrants the option to remain in Tapachula and receive assistance with their CBP One applications.”

Another migrant caravan departed the southern Mexican border region in July, Breitbart Texas reported. That group of approximately 3,000 migrants began making their way north to the U.S.-Mexico border.

By mid-September, large migrant group crossings returned to the Eagle Pass, Texas, border region.

“The large migrant group crossed the Rio Grande late in the afternoon near the small community of Normandy, Texas, roughly 16 miles north of Eagle Pass, Breitbart Texas’ Randy Clark wrote. “As reported by Breitbart, Texas, the area was once notorious for the frequency of large migrant crossings but has since slowed after increased election-year enforcement efforts in Mexico significantly slowed the flow of migrants arriving at the United States border.”

Since when should an army escort a caravan to another country? Why don't they arrest at least some of those illegal immigrants?

Quote:The alliance linking Iran and its proxy, the Shiite jihadist group Hezbollah, to the authoritarian regimes of Cuba and Venezuela continues to pose a threat to the United States in the region, a year after an attack by another Iranian terror proxy sparked an ongoing war in the Middle East.

Experts have long denounced Iran’s decades-long plan to expand its influence in the region by brokering alliances via “cooperation agreements” with countries led by far-left governments in several fields such as military and economy. Most recently, and most alarmingly, has been the case of Bolivia, which the executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS) Joseph Humire describes as Iran’s “most successful project” in the region.

Hezbollah has maintained a presence in the region for decades, acting on behalf of Iran to attack Israeli targets in Argentina during the 1990s. Hezbollah is responsible for the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. The 1994 AMIA bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The Venezuelan and Cuban regimes share longstanding deep, anti-U.S., and anti-Israel ideological relations with Iran. Those regimes’ ties to Iran were reinvigorated in recent years through the exchange of official head of state visits, starting with the visit of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro to Tehran in 2022. Late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi traveled to the region in June 2023 and the Cuban figurehead “president” Miguel Díaz-Canel visited Iran in December.

Both countries recently expressed their support of Iran’s latest missile attack on Israel, justifying it as Iran’s “legitimate defense against threats and crimes of the Israeli regime.”

In the case of Venezuela, Iran established its firm foothold in the country following the arrival of late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez’s “Bolivarian Revolution” to power in 1999. Chávez and Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held several encounters through the years in which Ahmadinejad often reiterated his support for Venezuela in “confronting imperialism” – namely, the United States.

Raisi claimed in June 2023 that Iran and Venezuela have a “strategic relation” with “common interests, views,” and “enemies.” The Venezuelan-Iran alliance “opened” the gates for Hezbollah’s increased presence in the region.

Maduro confirmed his regime’s military cooperation with Iran during his visit to Tehran in 2022. At the time, both countries signed a broad 20-year cooperation agreement. In March, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) warned of Iran’s growing military influence in Venezuela and the presence of military assets that directly pose a threat to U.S. cities within its attack range, such as Miami, Florida.

“The Venezuelan Armed Forces are the first to have armed drones in their inventory, courtesy of Iran. As well as the shipment of Iranian-made precision-guided short-range missiles, probably to arm the drones,” Humire said in February. “All has been delivered under the guise of commercial cargo shipment. This has been Iran’s modus operandi, as it did with Yemen; now we are seeing it in the region.”

Quote:Ukraine´s military said it struck a major oil terminal Monday in Crimea that provides fuel for Russia´s war effort as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the war has entered a key phase.

Both sides are facing the issue of how to sustain their costly war of attrition – a conflict that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and that shows no signs of a resolution.

Ukraine´s General Staff said on social media that the oil terminal in Feodosia, on the south coast of the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula, has been supplying the Russian army with fuel and that the strike was part of an ongoing effort to “undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian Federation.”

Russian-installed authorities in the city of Feodosia on the coast of the Black Sea reported a fire at the terminal on Monday morning but did not say what might have caused it.

Ukraine has increasingly targeted rear areas that are essential for Russia´s onslaught, now deep into its third year. It has developed long-range drones that have hit oil depots and refineries as well as armories.

Ukraine’s aim is to impair Russia´s ability to support its front-line units, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where the main Russian battlefield effort is stretching weary Ukrainian forces.

Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil.

Developments on that question could come next weekend at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, when defense leaders from the 50-plus partner nations that coordinate military aid to Ukraine are due to meet.

Quote:Russia may have just experienced its deadliest month of its invasion yet, a combination of human-wave tactics and Ukraine’s counter-invasion of Russian home territory combining to see casualty figures continue to soar.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence says daily military casualties — killed and injured — reached a new high in September, averaging 1,271 a day through the month. The intelligence digest shows this new level of daily losses are not just the highest level of the conflict yet, but are now head-and-shoulders above those inflicted on Russia even in the bloody first 12 months of the war Moscow started.

Even at its peaks, daily average casualties for Russia in 2022 were less than half what they are now.

The Ministry of Defence in its analysis states the surge in casualty rate this year is “almost certainly” down to Ukraine’s counter-invasion of Russia in Kharkov and Kursk, and Russia’s human-wave tactics. London describes these huge pushes as: “mass to overwhelm defensive positions and achieve tactical gains”. There is no end in sight, the analysis suggests, saying the onset of winter hasn’t seen a decrease in intensity in the past two years, and nothing is likely to change now.

In all Russia is “likely” to have suffered over 648,000 casualties, the digest said, citing Ukrainian government figures. Ukraine state media itself claims the nation inflicted 38,130 casualties on Russian armed forces in September, and also destroyed 6,283 vehicles of various types. This includes, they said, 291 Russian tanks and 787 armoured vehicles.

While Western sources like the British government, or the interminable leaks and briefings handed to a small handful of beltway-interest newspapers by the U.S. intelligence community, tend to focus on Russian casualties, understanding those in context is difficult as Ukrainian figures are much harder to come by...

Quote:The European Union on Tuesday set up a system for imposing sanctions against people accused of cyberattacks, information manipulation or acts of sabotage on behalf of Russia to undermine EU support for Ukraine.

NATO warned earlier this year of Russian “hostile state activity” against the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the U.K., and said that the Kremlin´s actions “constitute a threat to allied security.”

The EU said that it too has “detected an increasing number of a broad range of activities.” It said that Russia also continues to disrupt satellite communications, violate European airspace and organize physical attacks against people.

The challenge is that many of the activities fall below a threshold that might require a military response and both organizations are struggling to discourage such attacks effectively.

The EU´s new framework will allow it to target people, agencies or organizations that seek to undermine its fundamental values or “security, independence and integrity.” But no actual sanctions have yet been imposed. These measures would come later, once agreed by member countries.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the members are “united and determined to address these activities and hold perpetrators accountable. Our support to Ukraine will remain solid and unwavering for as long as it takes.”

Quote:Despite natural population growth being negative, the United Kingdom saw a record annual increase in its population due to the mass migration policies imposed upon the nation from Westminster.

The combined population of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland surged from around 67.6 million in mid-2022 to 68.3 million in mid-2023, as 662,400 more people resided in the UK, or an increase of one per cent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The 662,400 increase in the population is the largest numerical yearly jump since records began in 1971. The ONS noted that this resulted mostly from mass migration policies of the previous Tory government, with net migration for the period currently estimated at around 677,300.

“Net international migration was the main contributor to population increase for all four countries of the UK in the year to mid-2023,” the ONS said.

Latest migration figures show 1.16 million UK visas were granted for work, study or family reasons in the year ending June 2024.

Just over 75,000 people were granted permission to stay via schemes for refugees and for people from places such as Ukraine and the former British colony of Hong Kong.

During the same period, just over 38,700 people – a small proportion of the numbers coming to the UK – were detected arriving by “irregular routes”, such as small boat crossings.

Were it not for mass migration, the UK population would have fallen, with 16,300 more deaths than births being recorded across the country in the year to mid-2023. This natural decline in population occurred quicker than anticipated, with the ONS previously predicting that the rate would not turn negative until the middle of the next decade.

Quote:An analysis of police and census data has found that foreigners are two times as likely to be arrested on suspicion of crimes than British citizens.

While counties like the United States and Denmark regularly publish crime data relating to immigrants, the UK government and deep state bureacracy have steadfastly refused to entrust the British public with such information.

However, analysis of what data is available conducted by The Telegraph broadsheet compared arrest figures from 26 police forces over a three year period and the latest census population data to estimate the breakdown of suspected crimes committed by foreigners.

According to the findings there were 140,163 arrests of people without UK passports across the 26 forces, which were home to 2.1 million known foreigners. This means that there was an approximate arrest rate of 22.2 per 1,000 people. Conversely, the same metrics were found to show 806,672 arrests of UK citizens out of a population of 26.2 million, equating to 10.3 per 1,000 people.

While the data set is limited, with the previous census not reflecting the previous two years of record years of immigration and the inability to distinguish between foreign-born UK passport holders and native born Britons, the figures suggest that migrants are on average twice as likely to be suspected of committing crimes than the British citizens.

The report suggested that age may be a factor in the over representation of foreigners on the arrest rolls, with the paper noting that while half of all migrants in the country are between the ages of 20 and 40, while just 23 per cent of UK citizens fall into the same age range.

Quote:French anti-terror prosecutors announced the arrests Tuesday of three people in southwest France in a probe led by the country’s domestic intelligence agency into a suspected attack plot.

Police detained the three people in the Toulouse region, the national anti-terror prosecutors’ office said. It didn’t confirm French media reports that two of the suspects are Afghan nationals.

The prosecutors’ office said the DGSI domestic police intelligence service is leading the investigation into a suspected plot to carry out a terror attack or attacks.

It gave no details about possible targets or motives.

Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a new name for the ongoing war facing Israel since October 7, 2023: the “War of Rebirth.”

Netanyahu made the proposal at a special meeting of his cabinet to commemorate the first anniversary of the October 7 attack. Until now, the official name of Israel’s response has been “Operation Iron Swords.”

After noting that Israel was exacting a price from its enemies that they had never experienced before, Netanyahu continued:

“We are in a war and we will win. From that black day [October 7], we have been fighting. This is our existential war, the ‘War of Rebirth’. I would like to ask that we refer to the war that way in an official manner.”

His remarks, in Hebrew, were shown in a video published by the Government Press Office and published by Ynet. The Hebrew word used by Netanyahu, “tekumah,” can mean “resurrection,” “revival,” or “rebirth.”

There have been several other proposed names for the war over the past year — “October 7 War”; “Second War of Independence”; and even — according to one host on Israel’s Army Radio — the “War Without a Name.”

Israel is fighting on as many as seven fronts, facing Iran-backed terror organizations and Iran itself.

To most Israelis, the war is an existential one, waged against terrorists and against a regime who are determined to destroy the Jewish state.

Quote:Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claims he has reached a “good understanding” with Qatar for access to the $6 billion windfall of cash paid by President Joe Biden after a prisoner exchange deal with the United States in September 2023.

Biden administration officials continue to insist Iran will have only limited access to the funds.

“In Qatar, we have $6 billion in assets. The issue was discussed during a meeting between the governors of the two countries’ central banks, as well as the meeting with the Qatari Emir. We reached a good understanding in this regard,” Pezeshkian said after returning to Tehran on Thursday from a two-day trip to Qatar.

The Iranian president was referring to $6 billion in Iranian assets that were frozen in South Korean banks until September 2023, when the Biden administration issued a sanctions waiver allowing the funds to be transferred to Qatar’s central bank.

The Biden administration was strongly criticized for paying such a gigantic ransom for just five prisoners released by the Iranians, who also received five prisoners of their own in addition to Biden’s cash windfall.

The administration insisted the payment was not really a “ransom” and claimed Tehran would only be able to use the money for purchasing “humanitarian goods.”

Critics responded that money is fungible, so even if the Biden Administration kept its promise to limit Iranian access to the funds, giving Iran $6 billion to spend on food and medicine would free up $6 billion for more malign investments, such as arms and financial support for Tehran’s network of terrorist proxies.

Criticism over the $6 billion payout grew so intense that Tehran felt it necessary to insist in October 2023 that Biden’s ransom could not be taken back and the U.S. would not long be able to prevent Iran from accessing the funds for any purpose it desires.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed around the same time that Iran has somehow always had access to the “frozen” funds for humanitarian purposes, but was merely unable to use them due to “technical reasons” cleared up by the Biden hostage deal.

CBS News in October 2023 reported that a “quiet understanding” between the Biden administration and Qatar was reached to prevent Iran from accessing its $6 billion windfall in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians on October 7.

Pezeshkian said another “good understanding” was reached between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) oil states about “resolving any problems between us, or the disputes that existed” pertaining to the war in Gaza and Lebanon. He reportedly met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and with a delegation from the Hamas terrorist organization, during his trip to Qatar.

Quote:Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the world’s government leaders most fervently supporting the jihadist terrorists of Hamas, issued a statement on Monday marking the anniversary of Hamas’s unprecedented slaughter of Israeli civilians in which he threatened Israel.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, an Iran-backed jihadist terror organization based in Gaza, invaded Israel from Gaza and engaged in the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians and other widespread atrocities. Hamas terrorists killed entire families in their homes, engaged in door-to-door raids of residential communities, and tortured, gang-raped, and otherwise tormented their victims. Israeli officials estimate that 1,200 people were killed on October 7, including children as young as infants. An estimated 250 others were abducted into Gaza, of whom about 101 remain unaccounted for today.

Erdogan made no note of the October 7 massacre on Monday, instead comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and describing October 7 as the anniversary of the day Israel randomly began a “genocide” in Gaza. In reality, Israel declared war on Hamas on October 8 and launched a self-defense operation in Gaza to prevent a repeat of the atrocities that occurred the day before.

“It should not be forgotten that Israel will sooner or later pay the price for this genocide that has been going on for a year,” Erdogan warned in a statement on social media on Monday, according to the Turkish state outlet Anadolu Agency. “Just as humanity’s common alliance stopped Hitler, (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his murder network will be stopped in the same way.”
Erdogan concluded by declaring that Turkey would “stand against the Israeli government regardless of the cost.”

The Turkish strongman addressed Israel again on Tuesday, speaking to college students in Ankara. Erdogan decried the “Zionist lobby” for supporting Israel’s attempts to prevent an eruption of violence led by the overtly and unapologetically genocidal Hamas and claimed that, in Western countries, police have repressed peaceful pro-Hamas protests.

“Western countries that have lectured us about democracy at our universities for years have failed this test,” Erdogan claimed.

Contrary to Erdogan’s depiction, pro-Hamas campus riots in the United States and elsewhere were largely violent, destructive affairs necessitating law enforcement action, particularly in America’s largest cities. On Monday, a pro-Hamas riot at Columbia University in New York resulted in a Democrat activist, who attended in defense of Israel, receiving a mob beating for daring to suggest opposition to Hamas.

Underlings in Erdogan’s authoritarian government similarly condemned Israel on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in its history.

Quote:The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S., the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

Tawhedi, who arrived in the U.S. in September 2021, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan, officials said.

The arrest comes as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over the possibility of extremist violence on U.S. soil, with Director Christopher Wray telling The Associated Press in August that he was “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.”

“Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,” Wray said in a statement Tuesday.

An FBI affidavit does not reveal precisely how Tawhedi came onto investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months showing his determination in planning an attack. A photograph from July included in the affidavit depicts a man investigators identified as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, “a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.”


Officials say Tawhedi also consumed Islamic State propaganda, contributed to a charity that functions as a front for the militant group and communicated with a person who the FBI determined from a prior investigation was involved in recruitment and indoctrination of people interested in extremism. He also viewed webcams for the White House and the Washington Monument in July.

Tawhedi’s alleged co-conspirator was not identified by the Justice Department, which described him only as a juvenile, a fellow Afghan national and the brother of Tawhedi’s wife.

After the two advertised the sale of personal property on Facebook, the FBI enlisted an informant last month to respond to the offer and strike up a relationship. The informant later invited them to a gun range, where they ordered weapons from an undercover FBI official who was posing as a business partner of the informant, according to court papers.

Tawhedi was arrested Monday after taking possession of two AK-47 rifles and ammunition he had ordered, officials said. The unidentified co-conspirator was also arrested but the Justice Department did not provide details because he is a juvenile.

After he was arrested, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators he had planned an attack for Election Day that would target large gatherings of people.

Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

He appeared in court Tuesday and was ordered detained. An email to an attorney listed as representing him did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

A for-sale sign stood in the yard outside a modest, two-story brick home listed as being connected to Tawhedi’s family in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.

A woman who identified herself as Tawhedi’s wife declined to discuss the case.

“We don’t want to talk in the media,” said the woman, who did not give her name.

Tawhedi entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa in 2021 and has been on parole status pending the conclusion of his immigration proceedings, the Justice Department said. The program permits eligible Afghans who helped Americans, despite great personal risk to themselves and their loved ones, to apply for entry into America with their families.

Eligible Afghans include interpreters for the U.S. military as well as individuals integral to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. While the program has existed since 2009, the number of applicants skyrocketed after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Shawn VanDiver, the president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of organizations dedicated to helping Afghans trying to leave Afghanistan, said that though the charges are serious, “it’s critical that we do not assign blame to an entire community for the actions of one individual. Thousands of Afghans who resettled in the United States are working to build new lives and contribute to our shared future.”

Quote:Hurricane Milton made landfall near the city of Siesta Key in Florida, with winds of up to 120 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In a post on X, the National Hurricane Center revealed that around 8:30 p.m., the “radar data” showed that “the eye” of the hurricane had “made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County.”

“Max sustained winds at landfall are estimated at 120 mph,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.
...
Video footage posted to X by Brian Entin, a Senior National Correspondent with News Nation, also showed all of the water in Tampa Bay being “sucked out by Milton.”
...
Other videos posted to X showed massive amounts of water from the “storm surge” going into “Venice, Florida,” as the hurricane made landfall.
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As the hurricane made landfall in Florida, it was reported to be a “dangerous Category 3” storm, according to CBS News.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® issued a statement in a post on X that as the hurricane made landfall, it was “time to shelter in place,” adding that “as soon as weather conditions” died down, “search and rescue efforts” would begin.

“As Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Sarasota county, now is the time to shelter in place,” DeSantis wrote. “First responders are staged and ready to go, as soon as weather conditions allow. Search and rescue efforts will be well underway to save lives before dawn, and they will continue for as long as it takes.”

Quote:Democrats and establishment media are blaming FEMA’s poor Hurricane Helene response on Republicans who opposed a lame duck spending bill – despite FEMA’s administrator stating unequivocally the agency has all the money it needs.

The Kamala Harris campaign has led the finger pointing at Republicans who voted against a September funding bill that included appropriations for FEMA – among hundreds of billions for additional projects across the federal government, much of which the Republicans view as wasteful, woke, and contributing to the nation’s poor economy.

That September bill easily passed, and the FEMA administer has made clear that however one might judge its initial response to Helene, funding is not to blame. “I have funding and sufficient resources to support the ongoing responses to Hurricane Helene as well as Hurricane Milton,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters Wednesday.
That hasn’t stopped Harris’s campaign from politicizing the disaster. The campaign account posted on X a list misleadingly titled “Republicans who voted against FEMA funding” which included the Republicans voting against the September CR – insinuating those Republicans did not care about disaster relief.

The Republicans opposed the legislation for a number of reasons, most notably its funding for a grab bag of leftwing giveaways.

The bill included tens of billions of dollars in research grants from science agencies to universities for initiatives for “equity,” DEI, “gender-affirming care,” and fighting “racism” in fields of study like geoscience and engineering.

Funding in the bill also included billions of dollars in grants to nonprofits that enable illegal immigration by providing social services, transportation across the country, and connections to employment. Conservatives also point out the infrastructure programs funded by the bill disproportionately fund urban transit in Democrat strongholds, subsidize “road diets” and bike lanes that create congestion for drivers, and fund road-destroying EV buses.

Conservatives also point to Green New Deal initiatives in the Department of Energy and EPA funded by the massive bill, as well as funding for arts and entertainment – like the ritzy Kennedy Center in Washington, a hotspot for members of Congress.

It isn’t just domestic spending. Conservatives also opposed the robust foreign aid in the bill, much of which goes towards promoting leftwing nonprofits that spread the left’s social agenda abroad.

Many Republicans also objected on principal to the timing of the extension.

Most concerning, the continuing resolution extends government funding to the lame duck session – after the November election, but before a new Congress (during which majorities in the House and Senate are likely to switch) and before a new president takes office.

During this time, Congress is expected to pass a massive omnibus spending bill. The September CR’s opponents argue that bill’s extension to December will enable Democrats to avoid voter scrutiny, passing a bill after the election but before the voters’ most recent choices to govern take office.

Republicans had pushed to use the end-of-September funding deadline as leverage to enact concessions from Democrats, who along with some Republicans who have enjoyed directing government largesse throughout their careers, were content to push the major decisions until the lame duck sessions.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), among others, wanted a six-month CR paired with the SAVE Act – a bill to prohibit noncitizens from voting. That bill through mid-March would give the new Congress and administration the chance to choose spending levels and policy priorities. Other Republicans advocated pairing a six-month CR with a border security bill, like the House-passed H.R. 2.

Ultimately, those efforts did not make it past the House, and were almost sure to fail in the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority and Republicans tend to avoid rocking the boat. And the three-month CR favored by Democrats and the Biden administration passed before the deadline.[

Quote:The White House readout of President Joe Biden’s phone call Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — their first since August — omitted any discussion of what Israel might do to retaliate against Iran.

As Breitbart News reported, the call lasted between 30-50 minutes, and included Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It came as Israel prepares to respond to Iran’s ballistic missile attack last week, during which it fired 200 such missiles, over 10% of which broke through Israel’s missile defense systems.

The readout condemns the missile attack, but says nothing about what Israel might do to respond to Iran.

The full text, as published by the White House, follows:

President Biden spoke this morning with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. Vice President Harris joined the call. The President affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security. He condemned unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st. On Lebanon, the President emphasized the need for a diplomatic arrangement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line. The President affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasizing the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut. On Gaza, the leaders discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas. The President also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately. They agreed to remain in close contact over the coming days both directly and through their national security teams.

Amid silence about potential plans for responding to Iran, speculation flourished on social media. Biden said last week that Israel should not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, or its oil and gas facilities. Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday said that Israel’s response to Iran would be “powerful, precise and above all — surprising.”

Netanyahu’s office did not release its version of the call.

Quote:Where were Haiti’s elite anti-gang police on October 3 when more than 88 Haitians were being murdered by gangs in a rural town?

Hard to find, except for in New York where former anti-gang cops are working in low-wage Bidenomics jobs because President Joe Biden’s migration chief gave them visas to fill jobs in President Joe Biden’s economy.

The U.S. Department of State’s “2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Haiti,” admitted:

Law enforcement experienced a significant reduction in its [9,000 person] workforce as police officers fled the country; media reported 3,000 police officers departed Haiti since 2022, the majority of whom anecdotally left on the U.S. government’s [visa] processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, a humanitarian parole program [created by Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas] that included Haitians as of January 2023.

The New York Times described the aftermath of the Mayorkas-enabled massacre at the town of Pont-Sondé:

When Ms. [Bertide] Horace, who was about 10 miles away in the city of Saint-Marc, arrived with heavily armed police officers four hours later as the sun was rising, she said the streets of the town were strewed with bodies.

“People were coming out of hiding and trying to flee,” she said in an interview. “It was total panic.” The wounded, she added, were walking around “begging for help.”

The violence, perpetrated by a gang called the Gran Grif, left at least 88 people, including 10 gang members, dead, the United Nations said.

DocumentedNY.com spoke to four of the Haitian police officers living in New York in June 2024;

[Cosby] Jean-Charles is a security agent at John F. Kennedy Airport. [Roodolphe] Nicolas briefly found work as a parking valet in Manhattan for one month until his work permit expired … Miguel Chardovoine, who runs a small tree-cutting business in Buffalo, and Bernard C. Pierre, a cook at the Barclays Center, who prepares food for the Brooklyn Nets. Pierre also works as a parking valet in Manhattan and stock clerk at a Dollar General store.

…

[Nicolas had] graduated from the 20th class of the Haitian police force [in 207], known as Orion. His comrades-in-arms called him ‘Battalion’ because he ranked second in the Haitian police academy. Because of his outstanding performance, he could choose the police unit he wanted to join. While most opted for the anti-drug trafficking unit, he ultimately joined a specialized unit that maintains public order and handles protests and civil unrest.

The ex-cops said they saw how Haiti’s elites protect the gangs whenever the police close in:

Like Chardavoine and Nicolas, Jean-Charles was fed up with a police institution he described as “sick to the bone.” He said he witnessed so much wrongdoing where services were focused on benefiting the wealthiest. Like his other colleagues, he told Documented there’s no real motivation from the police and the Haitian government to solve the crisis with the gangs.

The article was headlined “Members of Elite Haiti Police Force Lost in New York as Asylum Seekers and Parolees.”

The four ex-cops are just a few of the roughly 500,000 people extracted from Haiti by U.S. immigration policy, which is run by Mayorkas and his progressive deputies. They gave “Temporary Protected Status” to roughly 300,000 Haitians after they illegally crossed the border, and awarded travel visas to another 214,000 via Mayorkas’ parole program.

These days, educated Haitian migrants are being used around the country to manage the growing population of productivity-cutting, wage-shrinking, and rent-inflating Haitian workers in cities such as Springfield, Ohio, Washington, Ind., and Charleroi, Pa.

For example, a former officer in the Haitian Coast Guard was hired to help bring Haitians into Charleroi and its low-tech employers, such as Fourth Street Foods:

Bernabe, a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and the Haitian State University, has a wide-ranging career in public service including the military, law enforcement, and education.

….

Leanna Spada, Executive Director of the Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, with its headquarters in downtown Charleroi, spearheaded the search which led to Bernabe’s hiring. The search committee sought out an individual who would be a trusted partner to help capture the opportunity that the new wave of immigrants has presented within the Mid-Mon Valley.

“We brought life to the community,” Evency Dorzelma, a former Haitian police officer in Charleroi, Pa., told the Washington Post on October 9. “We don’t do no harm to anyone.”

Mayorkas’s multi-channel policy of Extraction Migration is designed to extract human resources from poor nations to boost consumption and fill jobs in the United States. Mayorkas also is trying to emulate Canada’s importation of Indians to provide consumer-economy employers with a cheap, subordinate, and disposable workforce.

In March 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris declined to take Biden’s offer of a leading role in immigration policy. Since then, she has not publicly objected to Mayorkas’ policies and she is widely expected to continue those policies if she is elected president.

Understandably, those policies are extremely unpopular in the United States, in part, because they help push millions of Americans out of the workforce as they push Americans’ economy into a low-tech future.

Many people have pointed out the disastrous results of Mayorkas’ colonialism-like policies in Haiti.

Quote:A professor at the University of Kansas has been placed on administrative leave after saying that men who don’t for Vice President Kamala Harris because she’s a woman should be shot. “We could line all those guys up and shoot them,” he said in a recently leaked video. The university has not named the instructor as of Wednesday evening.

“What frustrates me [is] there are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president, because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president,” the University of Kansas professor said during a recently recorded lecture.

“We could line all those guys up and shoot them,” the professor continued. “They clearly don’t understand the way the world works.”

“Did I say that? Scratch that from the recording,” the professor added. “I don’t want the deans hearing that I said that.”

Nonetheless, video of the professor’s comments surfaced on social media, where the footage went viral.
...
The University of Kansas responded to the backlash in a statement on X, informing the public that the professor, whose identity still remains unreleased, has been placed on administrative leave while the school conducts an investigation into the matter.

“The university is aware of a classroom video in which an instructor made an inappropriate reference to violence. The instructor is being placed on administrative leave, pending further investigation,” University of Kansas said.
...
The university then attempted to explain that the professor was just trying to showcase “his advocacy for women’s rights and equality.”

“The instructor offers his sincerest apologies and deeply regrets the situation. His intent was to emphasize his advocacy for women’s rights and equality, and he recognizes he did a very poor job of doing so,” University of Kansas said.

“The university has an established process for situations like this and will follow that process,” the school added.

Quote:A Washington woman resorted to calling the police after her decades-long habit of feeding local raccoons spun out of control into an all-out raccoon invasion of her home, authorities said.

The resident, living in the Seattle suburb of Poulsbo, called Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Thursday due to a mob of 100 raccoons “demanding food” outside her house, 12News reported.

Shocking video footage shared by the sheriff’s office shows the herd of woodland creatures camped out in the woman’s yard:
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The resident told deputies that she had been feeding raccoons for 35 years, but the population had “exploded” in the last six weeks.

“Somehow the word got out in raccoon land and they all showed up to her house expecting a meal,” Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kevin McCarty said.

“[The deputies] were shocked,” McCarty added. “They had never seen that many raccoons in one place. Nobody ever remembers being surrounded by a swarm of raccoons. This was a first.”

The woman’s neighbor, Wendy Cronk, said she has also seen a dramatic uptick in raccoon interactions.

“I’d say it’s been about the last month or so I’ve noticed it,” she told the local outlet. “I’ve had several raccoons in the yard recently. My dogs have gotten in a scuffle several times with a raccoon.”

“I’ve even had to take one of my dogs to the vet after tussling with a raccoon,” Cronk continued. “And I’ve also noticed there’s been a lot more hit raccoons up on the main road here.”

She added that she hopes her neighbor will stop feeding wild animals.

“I just hope that somebody steps in and helps her take care of this problem… and hopefully she’ll quit doing it,” said Cronk.

Another neighbor, Jim Malmbord, also complained to KOMO News.

“I’ve never seen that much, not in one place. You know, I can see where she started feeding them, but she didn’t stop. She just didn’t give up,” he said.

The raccoon-feeder told deputies that a trapping company had quoted her $500 to trap and relocate just one raccoon — leading the sheriff’s office to refer her to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for help instead.

“At this point, it’s been determined that the raccoons haven’t committed any crimes,” McCarty said.

“It’s pretty simple,” he added. “Don’t feed wild animals. When wild animals have a reliable food source, they’re going to keep coming back to it. And that’s what these raccoons did until the number of raccoons expecting a meal got out of hand.”

Well, demanding stuff from local villagers is exactly what mafiosi and gangsters do, don't they?

Quote:President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is refusing to collect DNA from millions of migrants arriving at the United States-Mexico border, whistleblowers allege.

A letter to Biden and Harris, signed by more than two dozen House and Senate Republicans, details whistleblower allegations against DHS in particular for allegedly refusing to abide by the DNA Fingerprint Act passed by Congress in 2005.

The law requires federal agencies to collect DNA samples from those arrested, charged, and convicted of crimes as well as foreign nationals detained by the federal government.

While former President Barack Obama’s DHS had failed to comply with the law, former President Donald Trump finalized a rule in 2020 that made clear the law had to be followed. Since then, whistleblowers allege, Biden and Harris’s DHS has continued to violate the law.

“In Fiscal Year 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration collected DNA from only 16% of the 1.9 million individuals encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Office of Field Operations (OFO),” the Republicans write:

Further, in Fiscal Year 2022, DNA was collected from only 37% of the 2.7 million individuals encountered by CBP and OFO. Whistleblowers also disclosed that in the first three quarters of Fiscal Year 2023, CBP and OFO collected DNA from only 36% of the 2.3 million individuals encountered. More recently, according to protected whistleblower disclosures, CBP officials visited United States Border Patrol (USBP) processing facilities in Tucson, Casa Grande, Yuma, and San Diego, and at no facility that these officials visited was DNA being collected. This blatant disregard for the law has been exacerbated by your administration’s failed border policies, which have precipitated an unprecedented explosion in nationwide encounters of illegal immigrants at our borders — over 10 million in just three and-a-half years and this staggering sum doesn’t even account for the estimated 2 million that crossed and evaded apprehension.

The Republicans note that Biden and Harris’s failure to collect DNA from migrants arriving at the border has had deadly consequences.

“Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, the Salvadoran gang member that allegedly raped and killed Rachel Morin, and who also was linked to the murder of a young woman in El Salvador, crossed the border four separate times,” the Republicans write:

During three of these crossings — twice in January 2023 and once in February 2023 — border patrol agents apprehended and deported him. According to the panelists and other whistleblower disclosures, DHS did not collect DNA from Martinez-Hernandez, despite having “three bites at the apple.” On his fourth illegal crossing, Martinez-Hernandez was able to evade border patrol agents completely.

Six months prior to Rachel Morin’s tragic murder, Martinez-Hernandez allegedly committed a home invasion, assaulting a 9-year-old girl and her mother in Los Angeles. DNA was collected at the crime scene and submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Had DNA been collected during any of Martinez-Hernandez’s three encounters with DHS, “there would’ve been an instant possibility that any future criminal activity would have stopped immediately. And there was a definite potential for the individual to be apprehended.”

Quote:Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday that Haitian gangs are bolstering their manpower by recruiting more young boys as child soldiers, while young girls are pressed into service as sexually abused household slaves.

“Hundreds, if not thousands, of children in Haiti, driven by hunger and poverty, have in recent months joined criminal groups, where they are forced into illegal activities and face abuse,” HRW said.

The report noted that criminal gangs are increasingly recruiting children to swell their ranks in response to the U.N. Multinational Security Support (MSS) and greater international support for the Haitian National Police (HNP).

The gangs have a deep pool of children to recruit and abuse. Gangsters and warlords currently control almost 80 percent of the national capital, Port-au-Prince, which puts half a million children under their rule.

“While no official figures are available, human rights and humanitarian organizations and government officials estimate that at least 30 percent of criminal group members are children,” HRW noted with alarm. “Children participate in criminal activities ranging from extortion and looting to severe acts of violence, including killing and kidnapping.”

UNICEF warned in June that up to half of the soldiers in some gangs are children. The gangs like to use them as spotters, and for confrontations with the police. UNICEF worried that the problem was getting worse because the gangs are blocking shipments of humanitarian aid, creating more hunger they could exploit to bring children into their ranks.

HRW researchers spoke to several children recruited by Haiti’s thousands of criminal gangs. Young boys pressed into service as soldiers cited hunger as a major reason they went along with it. Some of them said associating with a gang was the only way to guarantee food for their families.

As for the girls, Haitian youths told HRW that gang bosses have developed a taste for raping children, inspiring each other to greater acts of cruelty and debauchery to satisfy their appetites and demonstrate their power.

“They rape them, not only the boss, everyone, whoever wants to, can rape them. They are in the group to serve them with sex and cooking and washing clothes,” one child soldier said of young girls taken by the gangs.

Other witnesses said the gangs stop feeding their young sex slaves and cast them aside if they become pregnant.

Haiti’s child soldiers said they are routinely threatened with violence and death if they hesitate to obey the sadistic commands of their bosses. U.N. officials have supported these claims by documenting numerous summary executions and lynchings of children since the beginning of 2024.

Quote:The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned in a briefing on Monday that the communist regime of Cuba is looking to actively interfere in America’s 2024 election, not only influencing votes for president but seeking to aid pro-communist candidates in local and congressional races.

“Havana almost certainly has considered influence efforts targeting some candidates,” an unnamed ODNI official told reporters. “Havana may be, as it has done in previous cycles, trying to curry favor from congressional and sub-national politicians that it believes will support its preferred policies.”

“Havana is very focused on a few policy issues that it believes to be negatively impacting the regime, particularly the U.S. embargo on Cuba and other economic and travel restrictions, all of which Havana perceives as an effort to force regime change,” the official continued.

The Castro regime has for decades railed against what is commonly known as the American economic “embargo,” a series of regulations that mildly limit economic activity between the two countries. The embargo does nothing to stop humanitarian aid, food, or medicine from entering the country; America is Cuba’s largest supplier of chicken, for example. The embargo does ban America’s massive travel and technology companies from interacting directly from the over half-century-old violent communist regime, however, and curbs some tourism, though it notably does little to stop Americans from visiting the island. Cubans face significant restrictions on their travel freedoms imposed directly by the Communist Party, particularly regarding travel to America.

Despite the relatively minimal impact on Cuba’s international trade from the embargo, the Castro regime regularly demands it be lifted so that its leaders, running a government known for state sponsorship of terrorism, can access America’s prodigious markets and fund their lavish lifestyles. They also regularly engage leftists and communist sympathizers in America to agitate on their behalf.

The ODNI listed Cuba alongside Russia and China as countries “supporting or denigrating candidates involved in congressional, state, and local races.” Officials suggested Florida local races were particularly vulnerable to Cuban influence.

“Havana considers election influence activities as part of its standing requirements to influence those policies, and Florida is a prime target of their activities,” one official said. “To that end, we have observed Cuba tailoring influence activities based on its perception of a candidate’s stances on policies toward Cuba. For example, in 2020 Havana intended to denigrate specific candidates in Florida and pushed influence narratives to the Latin American community in the United States.”

Citing a greater ODNI report on election interference, the independent outlet Cubanet on Tuesday reported that the American agency described Cuba as “not new to these intents, but the current conditions allow them to intensify their efforts.” In addition to contacting sympathetic candidates, the ODNI suggested that Cuba is bombarding Americans with “disinformation” campaigns to favor the communist agenda.

Quote:A Russian court on Monday sentenced 72-year-old U.S. citizen Stephen James Hubbard to nearly seven years in prison for helping to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

Russian prosecutors said Hubbard joined a defense unit in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He was taken prisoner by Russian forces after the city was captured in April 2022. Ukrainian forces were able to push the Russians out of Izyum in a counteroffensive about five months later.

The prosecution said he “systematically received material compensation” for his efforts, working out to about $1,000 per month. They also claimed Hubbard was trained and armed by the Ukrainian military.

Hubbard is a native of Big Rapids, Michigan. In a video interview posted on the Telegram messaging platform in May 2022, he said he moved to Izyum in 2014 and “lived happily with his wife.”

Hubbard supposedly confessed to the charges against him last month, but his sister Trisha Hubbard Fox has tirelessly argued that the case against him was fabricated.

“Russia’s prosecutor is lying! Steve was never a mercenary. He was an English teacher teaching English in foreign countries!” she said a Facebook post last month.

Other family members have said Hubbard drifted away from his relatives while teaching English in countries like Japan and Cyprus over the years. Fox said her brother was living quietly in Ukraine on a pension of about $300 a month, and did not speak either Russian or Ukrainian.

Quote:Six people were wounded – two of them seriously – in a mass terror stabbing attack in the central Israeli city of Hadera on Wednesday morning, police reported. The terrorist was later neutralized.

The Jerusalem Post reports paramedics treated two men, ages approximately 30 and 50, in serious condition.

Additionally, a third person, approximately 70 years old, was moderately wounded. All three were evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera.

The mass stabbing only ended when police intervened. The Post report details:

According to the police, the terrorist attacked in four different locations, wounding two in the first, a third in the second, another two were attacked in the third location, and a sixth person was attacked in another location in Hadera before the police stopped the attacker.

“We arrived at the scene where there was a seriously injured person with stab wounds in multiple areas of his body and suffered from multisystem trauma,” MDA Paramedic Shaked Hajaj reported. “He was semi-conscious; we provided lifesaving medical treatment and evacuated him to the hospital. After that, we returned to the scene to continue treating other injured individuals.”

“The terrorist has been neutralized,” police said in a statement. “Four separate locations have been identified, resulting in six victims with stab wounds.”

The police did not immediately provide other details, but issued a brief video of the suspected attacker being apprehended, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile earlier two people were killed by rocket fire in Kiryat Shemona, from which most (not all) residents have evacuated.

According to Israel’s Army Radio, some of the rockets from a volley by Hezbollah were not intercepted by air defenses.

Israel has been on high security alert since the Hamas terrorist assault a year ago while a the conflict with Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon continues to escalate.

Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Wednesday that the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is using an environmental non-governmental organization (NGO), “Green Without Borders,” as a front for its activities.

In a statement, the IDF said:

The IDF’s 36th Division is conducting limited, localized, targeted raids against key Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon that pose a threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel. During the operations so far, the troops have eliminated numerous terrorists, destroyed underground infrastructure, and dismantled over 500 operational enemy infrastructure and combat compounds, including weapons storage facilities.

Over many years, the Hezbollah terrorist organization has cynically exploited the “Green Without Borders” (GWB) environmental NGO as a front for its military activities in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah dug tunnels, stored weapons, and built military observation posts inside GWB facilities located near the border with Israeli communities. During the operations of the 36th Division, the troops countered these threats, conducted targeted raids on these Hezbollah military assets, and destroyed the weapons and underground infrastructure.

The IDF released photographs and videos of weapons, tunnels, and other assets that Hezbollah hid using the NGO.

Israeli soldiers continue dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, including an observation tower that Hezbollah built opposite Rosh HaNikra, a set of caves that had been, until recently, a popular Israeli tourist site.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Israeli undercover commandos killed several wanted terrorists in the Palestinian-run city of Nablus, in the West Bank (known to Israelis as Judea and Samaria), continuing to fight a war on several fronts.

According to one source, Israel has now flipped the script on Hamas in Gaza with regard to hostage negotiations. While Hezbollah, in Lebanon, once said it would only stop firing at Israel if Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel now reportedly says it will only stop the war in Lebanon when Hamas releases the Israeli hostages unconditionally.

Quote:Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for high-level meetings on Wednesday intended to discuss how to stop Israel’s self-defense operations against Iran-backed terrorist organizations, Iranian media reported.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) confirmed on Wednesday that Araghchi met with his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, a meeting the Saudis described as necessary to discuss “bilateral relations and ways to enhance them.”

Iranian media reportedly the reason for the occasion differently, insisting the goal was “consultations and coordination” to “stop the regime’s [Israel’s] crimes.”

Iran is seeking to enhance “diplomatic efforts, in co-ordination with countries of the region, to stop the Israeli regime’s genocide and aggression and to alleviate the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters in Gaza and Lebanon,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman insisted in a statement regarding Araghchi’s stop in Riyadh.

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency described the stop in Saudi Arabia as part of a larger campaign to pressure Muslim countries in the world to support Iran’s proxy war against Israel and its direct hostile actions towards the country. Araghchi also claimed that Iran is trying to help broker a “ceasefire acceptable to and agreed on by the resistance,” a term Iran uses for its network of jihadist terror organizations.

The meeting is notable because it will be the second high-level exchange between Iran and Saudi Arabia in a month – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with Prince Faisal in Doha, Qatar, last week – and because it follows a dramatic change in tone regarding Israel out of the Saudi government. A year ago, prior to the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Saudi leaders were openly discussing the possibility of normalizing relations with Israel, as some other Gulf states have done.

The Trump-era Abraham Accords brought full normalization for Israel’s relationships with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but that momentum stalled under current President Joe Biden, who prioritized treating the Saudi government, once an ally to America, as a “pariah” over the gruesome killing of Islamist journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden attempted to undo the harm caused to the American-Saudi relationship with a visit to the country himself in 2022, but the damage appeared to be done and Saudi Arabia has since floated into the orbit of American enemies such as China and Iran.

China brokered a normalization deal between Tehran and Riyadh in early 2023 that restored ambassadors to their respective countries and allowed the anti-American BRICS coalition to extend both nations invites to join. Iran rapidly accepted, while Saudi Arabia has not yet completed the membership process.

Quote:Hurricane Milton is forecast to make landfall in Florida as a major hurricane later this week, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene wrought destruction on Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Misinformation about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and confusion over what the agency provides has spread in the midst of these disasters. A viral social media post viewed over 5 million times claims FEMA’s $750 Serious Needs Assistance is a loan and has to be paid back. Several VERIFY readers sent us questions to ask if this is true.

The Answer: False

No, FEMA’s $750 grant is not a loan.

WHAT WE FOUND

FEMA’s Serious Needs Assistance, which is a program that quickly gives disaster victims $750 for immediate supplies like food and medicine, is not a loan and does not have to be paid back.

Disaster victims get $750 from FEMA’s Serious Needs Assistance grant if the disaster has displaced them from their home and they establish they have critical needs they’d like funding to help cover. The critical needs that the $750 is meant to cover include emergency supplies such as food and water, first aid, childcare items, personal hygiene items and fuel for transportation.

Survivors in the hardest hit areas of a disaster may receive Serious Needs Assistance before FEMA inspects their home. In these cases, the goal of the grant is to get survivors money quickly while the agency determines their eligibility for other, larger grants.

Serious Needs Assistance is just one of many FEMA grants. A person can apply for more than one grant and receive multiple if they meet FEMA’s eligibility requirements.

Jaclyn Rothenberg, public affairs director for FEMA, posted to X that the $750 Serious Needs Assistance is not a loan.

“We do not ask for this money back,” Rothenberg said.

FEMA says on its rumor control page that other FEMA grants besides the $750 grant also do not have to be paid back in most cases. A survivor has to pay FEMA back only if they receive a FEMA grant to cover certain expenses and then later receive benefits from insurance or another grant that cover those exact same expenses.

Quote:Weary Floridians will confront a growing death count, flooding, homelessness, gas shortages, and power outages on Thursday morning as Hurricane Milton’s overnight trail of destruction becomes evident in the harsh light of day.

The massive weather event smashed Florida as a Category 3 storm, bringing misery to millions still ravaged by Hurricane Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph alongside a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit.

About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm.

By early Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph as it moved offshore and was about 35 miles east of Orlando.

The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than three million homes and businesses without power as of early Thursday, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

The energy problems don’t end there.

“Almost a quarter of gas stations in Florida don’t have gasoline,” said Patrick De Haan, Head of Petroleum Analysis at the gasoline analysis site GasBuddy. “In Tampa … 63 percent of stations don’t have gasoline right now,” he told NewsNation’s “CUOMO.”

About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management as reported by the Associated Press.

Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida Peninsula as a hurricane, eventually to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.

It is expected to impact the heavily populated Orlando area.

Before Milton even made landfall, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.

Just for you to know, here's an article with a couple of Twitter videos on what happened to Tampa Bay Rays' stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris is promising to provide tens of thousands of Afghan nationals brought to the United States often without in-person screenings, with green cards. The move would come even as an accused Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist was able to get resettled in Oklahoma from Afghanistan as part of Harris and President Joe Biden’s massive Afghan resettlement operation.

In September 2021, the Biden-Harris administration began resettling nearly 100,000 Afghan nationals across American communities. Among those resettled was 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who was arrested in Oklahoma this month after allegedly plotting an ISIS terrorist attack on American citizens on Election Day.

Despite widespread vetting failures, according to several federal audits, Harris is vowing that as president, she would work to provide green cards to those Afghans resettled in the U.S. in 2021 by passing a Senate bill by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) that included such a provision.

Harris’s campaign website reads:

As President, she will bring back the bipartisan border security bill and sign it into law. At the same time, she knows that our immigration system is broken and needs comprehensive reform that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.

The resettlement operation has been plagued with vetting failures since Afghans started arriving at Dulles International Airport in 2021.

In April 2023, a former Department of Defense (DOD) official revealed to Congress that some Afghans were resettled in the U.S. before they were found to have been involved in placing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan to kill American troops.

In 2021, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) requested information about the number of Afghans who sought entry to the U.S. and were listed on the federal government’s “No Fly List” because of their ties to Islamic terrorism. Biden’s top agency officials have refused to disclose the total.

In September 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) issued a bombshell report detailing how the Biden administration brought Afghans to the U.S. who were “not fully vetted” and could “pose a risk to national security.”

Similarly, in February 2022, a DOD IG report revealed that Biden’s agencies failed to properly vet Afghans who arrived in the U.S. and that about 50 Afghans were flagged for “significant security concerns” after their resettlement.

Most of the unvetted Afghans flagged for possible terrorism ties, the DOD IG report stated, have since disappeared into American communities. The report noted that as of September 17, 2021, only three of 31 Afghans flagged with specific “derogatory information” could be located.

In August 2022, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) detailed allegations from a whistleblower who claimed the Biden administration knowingly resettled almost 400 Afghans in the U.S. who were listed as “potential threats” in federal databases and urged staff to cut corners in the vetting process.

In May 2022, a Project Veritas report alleged the Biden administration resettled Afghans listed on the federal government’s “Terrorism Watch List” in American communities.

In July of this year, Grassley asked DHS and the FBI for details about what the agencies are doing to monitor those Afghans who are deemed national security threats after they were resettled in the U.S. Neither of the agencies has responded to the request.

Quote:Republican former President Donald Trump declared Wednesday there will be no debate “rematch” with his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris as the 2024 race for the White House enters the final stretch.

He spoke hours after Fox News invited the two presidential contenders to join a possible second debate on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 27, saying early voting had already begun and there was “nothing to debate.”

The pair faced off for the first time on Sept. 10. and Trump rejected rejected a subsequent invitation from CNN for an Oct. 23 debate, accepted by Harris.

Trump has dismissed calls for any rematch on the basis Harris knows she lost the presidential debate hosted by ABC News, as Breitbart News reported.

“It is very late in the process, (early) voting has already begun — there will be no rematch!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media platform, thus dismissing the possibility of a follow-up to the candidates’ first debate in Philadelphia.

“Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate,” Trump added.

As Breitbart News reported, Harris issued a slew of false claims and hoaxes on the live television showdown in front of millions of Americans during the presidential debate, while ABC moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir tamely failed to fact-check her.

Meanwhile, debate moderators joined Harris in debating Trump, countering statements he made and trying to fact-check him, with Muir even bizarrely fact-checking a joke the 45th president had previously made.

Despite all that, a Reuters focus group found undecided voters leaned toward Trump 2-to-1 following the debate. A New York Times survey of undecideds produced similar results.

Quote:There's only one month left until most clocks across the U.S. "fall back" one hour.

Daylight saving time will come to an end for 2024 on Nov. 3, the first Sunday in November. At 2 a.m. that Sunday, clocks will shift back an hour and grant most people and extra hour of sleep.

With the change comes earlier sunrises and nightfall well before 7 p.m. It won't be until March 2025 that we adjust our clocks to "spring ahead" once again.
Frequent measures in Congress have tried to make daylight saving time permanent in order to ditch the practice of changing our clocks twice a year. However, the bills usually die before they ever come close to becoming law.

With little to no progress made on that recent legislation, Americans will continue to "fall back" in 2024 and "spring forward" next year.

When does daylight saving time end?

Daylight saving time in 2024 ends on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 2 a.m.

Why was daylight saving time started?

The practice has been implemented in some form since World War I when Germany originally introduced it to conserve power and energy by extending daylight hours.

The Standard Time Act in 1918 was the first introduction of daylight saving time to American clocks. The temporary measure, which once held the nickname "war time," lasted from spring to fall and was intended to cut energy costs during World War I. The act is also responsible for the five time zones still in place today.

Quote:How much is a $2 bill really worth?

Many of us keep those $2 bills somewhere in our home because well we're not so sure why, but someone, somewhere, told us they're special. There's been online chatter recently that those 2 dollar bills you have saved somewhere could be worth thousands.

FOX43 Finds Out took some bills to the experts to find out if you can get more bang for your buck.

Michael Steinmetz, the Vice President of Steinmetz Coins & Currency, says he has people coming into his coins and currency shop in York County all the time asking if these bills are worth more than 2 bucks.

More times than not, the answer is no. Mostly because the US government still prints them.

"They're printed relatively sporadically. They're not printed every single year, they're printed when the government feels like it," said Steinmetz.

But how rare does a $2 bill need to be to fetch thousands of dollars from collectors?

It comes down to the serial number.

Steinmetz said, "Someone had, I believe, a number 1. So it would be like getting that note in your hand and looking down and seeing all zeros and a 1 at the end. I believe that note was also brand new and never used. It's a combination that just doesn't happen, which was why that note was worth so much money."

The expert said usually with these $2 bills, the older they are, the more likely they're worth more than 2 bucks, but not much more.

"The 1963 and '53 series. They do have additional value, none too crazy though," Steinmetz said. "$3-4 a piece on regular notes. Really gorgeous ones, yeah you can do a lot more money, you can probably get $20-$30 on a perfect note."

Steinmetz says mostly anything that would make a $2 bill worth a lot of money, is the same thing that would make any bill worth more money. Those rare serial numbers, different color seals, or they're just really old.

"I did have a young gentleman who works at a local gas station who found a number 8 $20. So all zeros and number eight," he recalled. "That was worth $400, but it's a very rare thing to have happened.

Quote:Republican leaders are stepping up their efforts to protect Americans’ ballots and GOP candidates from the chaos of illegal migration, according to Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project at The Heritage Foundation.

The Republican National Committee “and the legal community of conservatives are better prepared this cycle than they were in 2020,” Kyle Brosnan, chief counsel for the Oversight Project at The Heritage Foundation told Breitbart News. “I do think there is a recognition within the party apparatus that they need to engage in this election lawfare and they are better prepared than they have been in the past … it’s light years ahead of what it used to be. ”

This month, for example, GOP lawyers persuaded Michigan’s top court to enforce anti-fraud rules for absentee ballots. GOP governors are cleaning registration lists, and D.C. Republicans are collecting data and lawyers for post-election lawsuits, he said.

“Our mission here at the Oversight Project is to conduct undercover journalism, conduct investigations, and present facts to the American people and policymakers, so they can identify the problem and fix it,” Brosnan said.

Brosnan’s project spotlighted the danger with a video from Arizona showing a Spanish-speaking man offering to register an undercover journalist who says he is an illegal immigrant. “I can bring you a form to register to vote … you just need [your driver’s licenses] and your residency [documents],” he told the self-identified illegal with DACA documents.

“The grassroots conservative movement is unhappy with how the election rules were changed for 2020 and have a lot of questions about how that election was run,” Brosnan said.

Younger and newer Republicans are grappling with the problems created by migration, he said. “I think you’re sort of seeing a changing of the guard in terms of Republicans in Congress … I do think that you’re seeing the realization, at least amongst Republicans, that mass migration is not good for the country,” he added.

“The left has framed the election integrity discussion in a way that any efforts to raise awareness about problems with the way elections are conducted in America make you a conspiracy theorist who is anti-democratic,” Brisnan told Breitbart News, adding.

We seek to present facts and educate the public that there are indeed problems with how elections are run in America, and our videos that we have put out recently in three states show the illegal aliens being noncitizens, admitting on camera to be registered to vote. This most recent video is of a person speaking with an undercover journalist, where the journalist says that they are a non-citizen on DACA, and the person offers to register them and their friends to vote [which] is a crime.

This phenomenon of noncitizens appearing on the voter rolls is real, as evidenced by the recent voter-roll cleanups in Texas and Virginia, where Texas removed  people from their voter rolls, — 6,500 of which were non-citizens …. In Virginia, in their most recent voter-roll cleanup, 6,300 individuals were removed from the voter rolls as noncitizens … When you have the border wide open, a mass form of illegal immigration, things are going to slip through the cracks. And when the margins of these elections are so close, every vote matters.

In 2020, Biden won the prize by getting an extra 44,500 votes counted in three states — 20,500 votes counted in Wisconsin, 11,000 voters counted in Arizona, and 14,000 votes in Georgia. In 2016, Trump won with an extra 107,000 in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Nationwide, the population of illegal immigrants is roughly 15 million — and perhaps much more.

Quote:New York City Mayor Eric Adams is seeking $2.3 billion to spend on 14,000 hotel rooms to house migrants through 2025, according to reports.

The Adams administration projects the spending will be needed for the 150 hotels that are currently under contract with the city to house illegals, according to the New York Post.

Spending over the three years is likely to total up to $5.76 billion, the city says.

City hall has contracts with the New York City Hotel Association to provide the shelter at a cost of $352 per night per family, the city has reported.

“The New York City Department of Homeless Services is seeking to continue the City Sanctuary Facility program by procuring a vendor who can assist in acquiring the use of large-scale commercial hotels and hotel management services to help address the current emergency,” officials said.

The hotel association’s president and CEO, Vijay Dandapani, says his organization is paid about $100,000 per month to manage the contracts. In fact, he adds that they have full-time employees that work to fulfill the migrant housing contracts.

“We have five full time employees specifically for fulfilling the contractual obligations, besides work done by regular HANYC staff for the contract, in addition to their normal duties,” Dandapani told the paper.

On the tail of heavy criticism, Adams changed up his more lenient policies and began imposing 30-day limits for individual migrants and 60 days for families.

But the cost of the migrant crisis is already causing the city to limit services to citizens as officials have moved to cut funding for the city’s fire and police departments.

The Big Apple is only a small slice of the costs being sustained by New York state. Joe Biden’s border crisis is set to cost the Empire State upwards to $12 billion over three years, according to wire service AFP.

Meanwhile, the state is looking to enact a $237 billion budget that includes huge increases in migrant housing.

Quote:The Arizona State University student who allegedly stabbed her classmate in a seemingly random attack has had her first-degree attempted murder charge dropped by prosecutors.

Kaci Sloan, 19, was witnessed charging at Mara Daffron when she walked into the Glendale classroom on September 19 before plunging a knife into her “multiple times,” an affidavit obtained by Fox News states.

Matthew McCormick, one of around 13 people who saw the incident, said he took action to save the other student’s life when he realized that she was being attacked.

“In that moment, I didn’t really have a thought going through my head, I just knew that I felt compelled to do something,” he told FOX 10 Phoenix. “As she was going for a third attack, I was able to grab her wrists and apprehend her before further damage could be done.”

Investigators have corroborated McCormick’s statement, saying in a police report that a witness “was able to disarm the defendant by pulling the knife away from the defendant’s right hand and threw it away from them.”

A different witness then “kicked the knife to the back of the classroom,” police said.

A third witness said that Sloan was “sitting in the classroom at a desk and suddenly got up and ran at the victim as the victim entered the classroom and stabbed her multiple times,” the affidavit states.

Police added that the stabbing occurred “without any provocation or any words spoken.”

Daffron was rushed to the hospital, and is reportedly “making great progress and is on the mend,” according to a GoFundMe page created on her behalf.

A handwritten note referencing an unspecified act Sloan was “about to commit” was found in her bag by detectives, and she allegedly admitted to them that she “came to class to hurt somebody and was planning the attack since the night prior.”

Police said the defendant also admitted to targeting Daffron because she was “an easier target” than another potential victim, who Sloan referred to as “a veteran.”

Quote:Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky embraced British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a hug before hours-long talks on the ‘Victory Plan’ and military support in London on Thursday.

Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in London from Croatia on Thursday, the second engagement on his whistlestop tour of European capitals this week, drumming up support for his defensive war against the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian delegation met with the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the new head of NATO Mark Rutte, the British defence minister, the head of the British armed forces, and Starmer’s national security advisor inside Downing Street for around two hours.

Whille the talks may or may not have been fruitful for Ukraine, they are unlikely to have completely made up for the planned summit with President Joe Biden and Western leaders in Germany on Saturday that has been cancelled because of Hurricane Milton.

Before the talks, Sir Keir said of Zelensky’s second visit to the British Prime Minister’s official residence just in the past few months: “very good to welcome you back to go through plans, to talk in more detail about the work we can do together”. Zelensky replied for his part: “Me and my team give thanks to the UK people, the people of your great country, for your strength in us from the very beginning of the war. Today I want to share with you the details of the victory plan, we can count on you, thank you.

That a potential Presidential election win by Donald Trump could see him follow through on his promise to bring peace to the region is much of the mind of President Zelensky and his backers in this meeting was widely reported, with the Ukrainian apparently very keen to put his country into the most favourable possible position for any peace talks. His counter-invasion of Russia which started in the late Spring and which saw Ukraine take swathes of Russian territory has very likely been part of this bid, seeking to gain bargaining chips should the end of the conflict suddenly emerge.

The Associated Press in their reportage was typical of the articulation of these points, stating: “the plan seeks to strengthen Ukraine “both geopolitically and on the battlefield” before any kind of dialogue with Russia”. These foreign capital visits remain important for Zelensky given the predicted drop in financial aid to the country from its international partners reported by Germany’s Kiel Institute this week.

Quote:NATO will hold a long-planned major nuclear exercise next week, the alliance´s chief said Thursday, a few weeks after President Vladimir Putin announced changes to Russia´s nuclear doctrine to discourage Ukraine´s Western allies from supporting attacks on his country.

The “Steadfast Noon” exercise starts on Monday and will run for about two weeks. It will be led by Belgium and the Netherlands, use eight military bases and involve 2,000 personnel and 60 aircraft from 13 nations. The exercise has been held at roughly the same time each year for over a decade.

Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads are taking part. No live munitions are used. The bulk of the exercise is being held around 900 kilometers (560 miles) from Russia in the North Sea. Moscow has been informed about the drills, NATO officials say.

“In an uncertain world, it is vital that we test our defence and that we strengthen our defence so that our adversaries know that NATO is ready and is able to respond to any threat,” new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters in London.

The United States and the U.K., with their strategic nuclear forces, are key to NATO´s security deterrence. France also has nuclear weapons but is not a part of the organization´s nuclear planning group.

Angus Lapsley, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning, said the exercise is aimed at proving that the alliance´s ability to counter any threat to its 32 member countries is credible and something that “any adversary would need to take extremely seriously indeed.”

Lapsley said that NATO has been monitoring the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear power, the rapid expansion of China´s nuclear capabilities and developments in Iran – “but obviously what worries us most is Russia.”

Quote:Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s address to the European Parliament stressing the need to control illegal immigration sparked a full-scale meltdown from leftist and globalist factions in Strasbourg.

Laying out some of the top priorities for Budapest while it controls the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, borrowing from former President Donald Trump the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”, Prime Minister Orbán focussed heavily on the issue of immigration, saying that the “EU’s asylum system does not work today”.

Orbán argued that the open borders agenda favoured by Brussels has resulted in a rise in antisemitism, homophobia and violence against women across Europe. The Hungarian leader claimed that the “only solution” to the migrant crisis would be to only allow asylum seekers who were “given permission in advance” to enter the bloc.

Similar to the “Remain in Mexico” policy of the Trump administration, Orbán called for the EU to establish migrant “hotspots” in third party countries to handle asylum requests offshore.

“Since 2015, Hungary and I have been engaged in serious political debates on this matter. So far all attempts have been unsuccessful. We don’t know without external hotspots.

“Once we let someone in, we won’t be able to send them home,” he said per 24.hu.

Finally, Orbán called for the creation of regular Schengen Summits, in which member states could discuss new ways to improve border controls.

While the speech represented fairly standard fare for Orbán, and indeed for many conservatives throughout Europe, globalist and leftist factions in Strasbourg broke out into hysterical rants, accusing the prime minister of being a “dictator”, of allegedly being in the pocket of Beijing and Moscow, and for supposedly violating EU law by enacting restrictions on transgenderism in child entertainment in Hungary.

Quote:There will be no return to France for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden’s fourth son, the country’s interior minister announced Thursday.

Omar bin Laden was expelled last year from a Normandy village he was living in after he was accused of glorifying acts of terror on social media.

The BBC reports the 43-year-old had been earning a living painting landscape portraits and is currently residing in Qatar.

But new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he signed an order barring him from returning to France, accusing him of authoring social media posts last year which “glorified terrorism.”

Bin Laden left France after his residency permit was revoked for two years by officials in the wake of the posts. French media reported the dispute related to content marking the anniversary of his father’s death.

He has lived in France since 2016, earning a residency permit through his marriage to UK citizen Zaina Mohamed Al-Sabah – born Jane Felix-Browne.

Born in Saudi Arabia, Mr Bin Laden left his father’s side in 2000 after training at jihadist camps in Afghanistan.

Retailleau’s decision came as he met with 21 prefects, each responsible for a different French département, to discuss immigration.

The talks will focus more specifically on how to deal more efficiently with the legal measure called “obligation to leave French territory,” or OQTF, which is primarily used to deport foreign nationals.

Quote:French President Emmanuel Macron inspected the training of Ukrainian troops at a military camp in eastern France on Wednesday, a show of support for Ukraine as its Western allies mull a victory plan championed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian brigade that Macron visited is being battle-readied and armed by France for front-line deployment against the Russian invasion. For security reasons, Macron´s office said the base’s specific location could not be reported.

French military personnel are training 2,300 Ukrainian soldiers at the camp, teaching them how to use and maintain French-supplied weapons, and subjecting them to combat-like conditions, with stress, noise and drones.

It´s the first time Macron has met with some of the 15,000 Ukrainian troops that France has trained since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, including several thousand put through training courses in Poland.

The new Ukrainian Brigade No. 155 will eventually be made up of 4,500 troops. Of those, 2,300 are being trained in France, forming three battalions of infantry, plus engineers, artillery teams and other specialists. The brigade’s other battalions will be trained by Ukraine, to take the brigade’s total strength to 4,500 soldiers.

France is also equipping the brigade with an array of weaponry, plus training to use and maintain it. Macron’s office said the brigade will get 128 armored troop carriers, 18 Caesar artillery pieces and 18 AMX light tanks, plus Milan anti-tank missiles and heavy trucks. Macron has pledged up to 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) worth of military aid for Ukraine this year, his office said.

Macron’s office said the training has been adapted to front-line conditions that Ukrainian troops are encountering in the fight against Russia’s invasion forces. Training trenches have been dug using methods and layouts similar to those in Ukraine. Around 1,500 French military personnel are involved in the brigade´s training over several months.

Macron’s renewed focus on Ukraine also reflects how shifting politics in France have weakened his sway over domestic affairs. His decision to call surprise legislative elections in June backfired, leaving him with a minority government and strengthening the hand of his opponents in parliament. The government late Tuesday survived a no-confidence vote, the first of what threatens to be repeated efforts by Macron’s foes to bring down Prime Minister Michel Barnier in the months ahead.

Quote:The government of Italy has expelled Imam Zulfiqar Khan this week following calls from Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini to remove the Pakistani national over his radical Islamist preachings.

Khan, 54, the imam of the Jacopo di Paolo mosque in Bologna, was removed from Italy on Tuesday on order of Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi over concerns about state security and “growing ideological fanaticism” displayed by Khan.

The removal order cited Khan expressing a fundamentalist vision of jihad, the exaltation of martyrs, and support for Hamas terrorists in the Israel conflict, according to Italian state news agency Ansa.

Broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana reported that in videos published between November 2023 and April 2024, Zulfiqar Khan lambasted Western powers such as the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy of supporting “impure zionists” by backing Israel in its conflict with Hamas terrorists.

In one video, the Bologna imam was seen calling for Allah to destroy the supposed oppressors of the Palestinians.

In another sermon, Khan is reported to have called homosexuality “a disease to be treated” and argued that all Muslims have the right to that every confront it “to avoid catastrophic consequences such as even the very extinction of the human race”.

Quote:About 200 women ages 18-22 from across Africa have been recruited to work in a factory alongside Russian vocational students assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.

In interviews with The Associated Press, some of the women said they were misled that it would be a work-study program, describing long hours under constant surveillance, broken promises about wages and areas of study, and working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching.

The AP analyzed satellite images of the complex in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan and its leaked internal documents, spoke to a half-dozen African women who ended up there, and tracked down hundreds of videos in the online recruiting program to piece together life at the plant in what is called the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow.

What to know from AP´s reporting:

Russia and Iran signed a $1.7 billion deal in 2022 after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and Moscow began launching Iranian imports of drones later that year.

Satellite images show the plant at Alabuga quickly expanded.

It is now Russia´s main plant for making the one-way, exploding drones, with plans to produce 6,000 a year by 2025, according to the internal documents and the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.

Facing a wartime labor shortage in Russia, Alabuga has recruited from African countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as the South Asian country of Sri Lanka. The drive is expanding to elsewhere in Asia as well as Latin America.

About 90% of the foreign women recruited via a campaign dubbed “Alabuga Start” manufacture drones, according to David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector now with the Institute for Science and International Security. The documents show the women largely assemble the drones, use chemicals and paint them. The AP has been told some women have left the plant but are discouraged from doing so by management.

The foreign workers travel by bus from their living quarters to the factory, passing multiple security checkpoints, according to one worker who assembled drones.

Quote:Former Georgia candidate for U.S. Senate Herschel Walker blasted Barack Obama for sending black people backward in equality by demanding they vote based on skin color.

Walker’s slam against Obama came after the former president warned that not enough black people — especially black men — are supporting Harris, according to the current polls.

“Barack Obama, you forgot how hard we fought for our right to vote! Telling us how to vote based on color is a step backward. The bad policies of Biden/Harris have hurt us all. We need unity brother, not division!” Walker wrote, adding #Togetherwestand.
...
Obama’s comments followed a September 30 Pew Research poll that found only 84 percent of black people said they were planning to vote for Kamala Harris for president, while 13 percent said they were backing Trump. By contrast, Joe Biden won 92 percent of the black vote in 2020.

Harris’s declining support among black people has a lot of Democrat insiders worried, and Obama voiced that worry when he visited the important swing state of Pennsylvania this week.

“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities, as we saw when I was running,” Obama told Harris supporters in Pittsburgh.

“Now, I also want to say that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers,” Obama exclaimed. “So if you don’t mind, just for a second, I’m going to speak to y’all and say that when you have a choice that is this clear, when, on the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, knows you, went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy that comes from those experiences.”

“She’s had to work harder and do more and overcome and achieve the second highest office in the land,” Obama insisted.

Quote:During a town hall with Univision on Thursday, 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris responded to a question on what she’d do differently on the border than President Joe Biden by stating she “was the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state in this country, California.” And “will put my record up against anyone in terms of the work I have always done and will always do to ensure we have a secure border” and saying that she has done work on trafficking. Harris also stated that she’ll “do the work of focusing on what we must do to have an orderly and humane pathway to earn citizenship for hardworking people.”

Harris said, “Perhaps what distinguishes me from at least a couple of people, I was the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state in this country, California. That is also a border state. I have taken on transnational criminal organizations. I have taken on transnational criminal organizations that traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings and I have prosecuted them. I led a bipartisan group of attorneys general…to Mexico City to work with Mexican attorneys general to combine intelligence and resources to prosecute those cases, including what was going south, as well as what was coming north. So, I will put my record up against anyone in terms of the work I have always done and will always do to ensure we have a secure border.”

She then turned to the Senate border bill, which Biden also supported, and stated that she has done work on trafficking.

Harris added, “I will bring back that border security bill and I will sign it into law, and do the work of focusing on what we must do to have an orderly and humane pathway to earn citizenship for hardworking people.”

Quote:Project 65, a “dark money” left-wing group that has targeted lawyers that represented former President Donald Trump in 2020, is now warning potential Trump attorneys that they could be disbarred for working for him.

In an ad posted on Instagram, and apparently targeted at lawyers, Project 65 warns: “Don’t let partisan politics endanger your standing with the bar. The Porter Wright Partners face ethics complaints over Trump campaign post-election work. Don’t risk your law license by joining an effort to subvert democracy. We – and the public – are watching.”

Porter Wright is a firm that represented Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020. Its lawyers withdrew from representing Trump mere days after the November election after coming under intense pressure.

The “ethics complaints” referred to in the Project 65 ad were brought in 2022 by Project 65 itself against Ronald Hicks and Carolyn McGee, who were partners at Porter Wright at the time. Both now work for another firm, Nelson Mullins; they withdrew from representing Trump before the first hearing in his election challenges even took place. The Pennsylvania Office of Disciplinary Counsel does not appear to have taken any action against either of them.

As Breitbart News reported in 2022, Project 65 was launched with help from David Brock, the Hillary Clinton ally behind such groups as Media Matters. It does not disclose its donors, but has “ties to Democratic Party heavyweights,” Axios reported.

As Breitbart News later reported, Project 65’s “ongoing efforts to prosecute, disbar, and smear attorneys who served as election lawyers for President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign could leave Republicans short of legal talent for the election fight in November 2024.” Some 100 attorneys have reportedly been targeted.

Now, Project 65 is threatening attorneys who simply might be considering working for Trump, suggesting in the ad that merely representing him could “endanger” their “standing with the bar.”

The American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct declare: “A lawyer should use the law’s procedures only for legitimate purposes and not to harass or intimidate others.”

The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right “to have the Assistance of Counsel” in criminal proceedings, of which Trump faces several.

Quote:Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas allege that a contractor for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement used a charter bus to move a large group of illegal migrants north. The defendants allegedly claimed they were transporting legal unaccompanied minors that her company was hired to move.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 35-year-old Nancy Berenice Fernandez Luna last week during a smuggling attempt, court records revealed. Luna was riding in a bus with 39 adult illegal migrants and Jose Torres Ayala, who is also facing human smuggling charges. Dave Hendricks first reported the case for CBS4.

During the encounter with agents, Fernandez Luna reportedly presented her work (ICE contractor) ID, identifying her as an employee of MVM Inc.. This company contracts for ICE and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The court documents revealed that she told the agent that the bus was moving a group of unaccompanied minors who were COVID-19 positive.

The agents told her to wait while they contacted a local processing center to verify the information, and that is when Fernandez and Torres allegedly closed the bus doors and tried to flee. Agents stopped the bus shortly after and had the driver return to a secondary inspection area. There, authorities learned that the migrants were not unaccompanied minors with status but adult illegal migrants being moved by a human smuggling group.

Border Patrol agents arrested Fernandez, Torres, and 39 adult migrants that were inside the bus. Torres Ayala told authorities he was being paid $1,800 for the trip.

According to CBS4, during a hearing in McAllen on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia Medrano set Fernandez’s bond at $50,000 and ordered that if she can post the bond, she must be subject to GPS monitoring.

Quote:The education budgets for America’s small towns and states are skyrocketing as the huge wave of of the Biden-Harris administration’s migrant children are diverted into American primary schools.

As these migrants flood into public schools, administrators are shifting more budget dollars towards dealing with children who speak a dozen different languages, and some who have had little or no education in their home countries before they came to the U.S., and this shift of budget dollars necessarily takes resources away from native students.

The surge began in 2021 when Biden’s ill-fated border policies kicked into high gear and caused a continually growing influx of English Language Learners (ELL) who have to be taught English before being taught the rest of a school’s curriculum. Swing state Pennsylvania, for instance, saw a 40 percent rise in the number of EEL students, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The huge number of non-English speaking students has caused schools to rush to hire staffers who can speak more than just English and Spanish. And the problem is not merely the huge amount of money these new resources cost, but it has raised the issue of where to actually find the potential employees to fill that role.

Again, looking at Pennsylvania’s experience, in 2020 the state reported that there were 71,766 ELL students. By this year, though, that number had blown up to 99,889 such students, a 40 percent rise.

Another contrast was seen in these numbers, as well, in that the number of native-born American students declined during that same time period.

The situation is redounding negatively for American students, the DNCF noted. One parent said that her daughter lost the opportunity to enroll in Head Start in her small Pennsylvania town of Charleroi because the district had to shift resources to cater to a large increase in Haitian children who had entered school.

The Charleroi school budget is telling. In 2020, the school had spent $105,000 on ELL students. But by this year that cost had skyrocketed to $505,000 as the city’s school district saw a 1,100 percent increase in ELL students, most of who are Haitian.

Quote:The British government is set to miss out on billions in tax on gasoline and diesel after it pushed drivers to adopt electric cars instead, and will want to make up the shortfall by taxing road users per mile instead, a senior government advisor says.

Britain faces a future of “Big Brother is watching you” style cameras tracking drivers so they can be billed for using roads as the government’s policy decisions to incentivise electric vehicles (EVs) means it stands to miss out on billions of pounds of tax money from drivers a year.

In the United Kingdom, two of the major ways in which drivers are taxed is through Vehicle excise duty (‘car tax’), paid once a year and scaling on the type of car, and fuel duty paid at the pump when refuelling. But EVs don’t pay either of these taxes, and while electricity is not tax free — some tax and levies are charged on domestic electric use — the government is congenitally unable to cut its cloth according to its means and will look to other sources, says the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission Sir John Armitt.

Speaking at a conference on transport infrastructure on Thursday, Sir John said the government could either fund roads in future through general taxation, or find a way to tax electric vehicles, states The Guardian. He spoke particularly of what is called road pricing, where cars are taxed depending on how far they drive. In some cases this already exists, such as toll roads — although these are very rare in the UK now — or with London’s congestion charge.

A simple approach is to use the annual mileage of cars, as already recorded in the annual government mandated roadworthiness tests (MOTs), to see how far a car has been driven in any given 12-month to issue a bill based on that. But as expressed by Sir John, the government may wish to go for a more intrusive system. He said: “People would probably not like this in terms of ‘Big Brother is watching you,’ [but] you could pay a different rate, per time of day, per type of road you were driving on, anywhere in the country, and you just get a bill.”

On the government seeking to make up the money it lost on the push for electric, he said: “It’s politically a very difficult issue isn’t it? But many people will say road pricing is inevitable. Personally, I don’t see why it should be any different to anything else… We pay for all our other infrastructure services as we use them, and we pay for driving on the road, as we use it, via petrol tax. And if you’re going to lose the petrol tax, at [more than] £30bn a year, what is government going to replace it with?”.

The Guardian notes the government believes close to 100-per-cent of cars on British roads will be electric by 2045 assuming ban on new internal combustion engine cars in 2035 goes ahead. This is by no means certain of course, given it is easy for governments to announce such grand plans when they are so far in the future, when most of those involved will have retired by the time the tough decision comes. As it is, such decisions have been walked back several times in European nations including Britain already as the harsh reality bites, and may again in years to come.

Quote:A top globalist politician once hailed as the “Trump whisperer” who is now the Secretary General of NATO says he foresees a good relationship with whoever wins the U.S. Presidential elections next month, disarming some legacy criticism that Donald Trump is somehow a danger to the Western alliance.

Former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has been the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for 11 days, a position he secured to some extent on his strength as a rare internationalist-globalist who publicly made nice with President Trump while he was in office. He visited London on Thursday for talks with the British Prime Minister and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and while there appeared to lay groundwork to continue his working relationship with Trump should he be President again.

Rutte told The Times of London that: “I’ve worked very well with him for four years … it will work out [whoever becomes president] because in the end they both want to keep the US safe and to keep the US safe they need Nato.” He said he’s had a “good relationship” with Trump in the past, and said: “I respect him a lot and I think if he gets elected I can work with him”.

Trump having a good attitude to NATO is not just a matter of personal relationships, Rutte claimed, saying in an increasingly unstable world the alliance would simply become even more important to Washington. He told the paper: “For all allies in Nato, big or small, you cannot do it alone. You have to be a member of strong alliances and organisations like Nato … This goes back to Trump, I know that he knows it…. In a harsh, uncompromising world, he needs the alliance”.

While the former Dutch Prime Minister said he was confident things would go well whoever won the White House, he also showed he was onboard with Trump talking points on NATO, signalling he was fully conversant with the former President’s long-stated position that the two-per-cent spend on defence for each alliance member should be consigned to history. It is “not enough”, Rutte stated, saying a discussion had to happen where NATO members decide whether that means the new spending floor should be two-and-a-half or three per cent.

“I think it has to go up … we have more to do and we have to make sure that there is no capability gap”, Rutte is reported to have said.

Quote:Scion to the Le Pen family political dynasty Marion Maréchal launched a new political party this week entitled “Identity-Liberties” as she vows to confront the spread of wokism, mass migration, and the Islamisation of her homeland of France and at the EU level.

Fresh off a victory in the recent European Elections earning herself a seat in the EU Parliament, Maréchal announced the formation of a new political party with the express purpose of helping nationalists take power in France, notably including her aunt, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen.

“I am 34 years old and have two little girls, I live in a ruined country, fractured and infected by insecurity: my obsession is that the national camp wins. This is the only objective of the movement Identity-Liberties that I am launching!” the populist politician said.

Maréchal explained that identity and freedom are the “two major markers of our fight”, warning that “massive immigration, the Islamization of our society continues to progress; wokism is spreading in our schools and universities, and deconstructors are attacking all the load-bearing walls of our civilization.”

Noting that another dissolution of the French National Assembly is “likely” coming next year and that there is the possibility of an early presidential election to replace Emmanuel Macron, Maréchal said that “it is necessary to strengthen and expand the national camp coalition that emerged during the June 2024 legislative elections.”

Because of her alliances made within the pre-existing Reconquête party, Maréchal’s party will hit the ground running with members already placed in both the French and EU parliaments.

In Strasbourg, the Identity-Liberties party will have four MEPs under its banner, including Maréchal as well as Guillaume Peltier, Nicolas Bay, and Laurence Trochu. They will continue to sit with the Giorgia Meloni-led European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the EU Parliament.

Quote:A nighttime Russian missile strike on Odesa killed at least four people including a 16-year-old girl, regional authorities said Friday, in the latest in a series of attacks this week on the southern Ukrainian region that are likely intended to disrupt the country´s grain exports.

Four Russian missile and drone attacks on the Odesa region this week have killed 14 people and wounded around 20, according to local officials. The strikes have hit merchant ships and damaged port infrastructure in the region, which is a vital hub for Ukraine´s agricultural exports through the Black Sea.

An attack on Odesa late Wednesday killed nine people and hit a container ship sailing under the Panamanian flag – the third attack on a merchant vessel in four days, according to regional Gov. Oleh Kiper.

The apparent Russian effort to frustrate Ukraine´s exports, which bring vital revenue for a national economy battered by more than two years of war, coincided with a renewed push by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ensure continuing military and financial support from his country´s Western partners.

Ukraine´s stretched and short-handed army is currently under heavy pressure in the country´s eastern Donetsk region. Russian forces recently pushed it out of the Donetsk town of Vuhledar and are now in control of about half of nearby Toretsk, local administration chief Vasyl Chynchyk said Friday. To stop the losses, Zelenskyy needs to secure more help.

Russia last year tore up an agreement that allowed Ukraine – one of the world´s biggest suppliers of grain and other food staples, especially to developing nations – to export produce safely through the Black Sea.

Months later, and amid successful Ukrainian attacks on Russia´s Black Sea fleet which forced its navy to back away from the coast, Ukraine established a shipping corridor that hugs the coast down to Turkey and opens a way to the Mediterranean Sea.

A special insurance program has provided affordable coverage to shippers who have carried millions of tons of cargo out of Ukraine, but the latest attacks could jeopardize that arrangement.

Quote:Nearly 70 percent of Taiwanese people would be “very willing or somewhat willing” to personally take up arms in the event of a Chinese communist invasion, a poll released Wednesday revealed, while a much smaller percentage expect the United States to use its navy to fight an attempted Chinese blockade of the island.

The poll, conducted by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, found that 64 percent of Taiwanese respondents considered Chinese “territorial ambition” a “serious threat.” Only 23.6 percent of respondents said they would not be open to fighting in a war to prevent Chinese conquest.

While most, 67.8 percent, said they would willing to fight to defend Taiwan from China, over half, 61 percent, of Taiwanese respondents said they believed it unlikely that the Communist Party would invade in the next five years. They also did not appear overwhelmingly confident in their friendly relations with the United States. Over 52 percent of respondents told the think tank that they believed America would send troops to help defend against China, but only about 40 percent said Washington would deploy the navy to help stop a Taiwanese blockade.

Taiwan is a sovereign island country off the coast of China, formally known as the Republic of China. It maintains an independent, democratic political leadership, as well as other core government institutions such as its military, healthcare system, and social safety net. The island has never in its history been governed by a regime based in Beijing.

Despite this, communist China insists that the Taiwanese government does not exist and the island is legitimate a province of China. The Communist Party refers to this as the “One-China principle,” insisting that the “Republic of China” is a dangerous separatist organization and claiming it rightfully controls the island. Chinese dictator Xi Jinping regularly hints at planning to invade and colonize the Island, and the Chinese Coast Guard routinely harasses Taiwanese in the South China Sea. While Xi has toned down some of Beijing’s anti-Taiwan rhetoric in more recent years, the genocidal tyrant promised in 2019 that anyone recognizing the reality of Taiwan’s independence would have their “bones ground to powder.”

The vast majority of world powers, including the United States, refuse to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty as doing so would automatically result in severed diplomatic and economic ties with China. Washington’s official stance is slightly less severe than Beijing’s, however – the United States follows the “One-China policy,” which states that there is only one China in the world but does not specify whether its capital is Beijing or Taipei. America sells military gear to Taiwan and allows its government limited diplomatic representation in America.

This week’s poll revealing that many Taiwanese do not expect full backing from the United States in the event of the invasion follows a confusing and turbulent four years under President Joe Biden. Biden has repeatedly claimed, falsely, that the United States has a formal commitment to defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese invasion, forcing the State Department to rapidly issue clarifications that no such mutual defense treaty exists. While Biden’s comments have been defensive of Taiwan, his administration has on occasion hurt Taiwan’s defenses. In September, the U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (DoD OIG) revealed, for example, that the DOD sent Taiwan shipments of military equipment that were “unserviceable,” in some cases covered in mold.

Quote:The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), a semi-official organization created by the government of Taiwan, reported last week that at least 40 Taiwanese travelers went missing in communist China over the past year and remain unreachable.

SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia said there were about 30 additional cases in which missing Taiwanese had been contacted by his agency. Most of those people had arranged their own “disappearances” for “personal reasons,” or because they were fleeing from the law. Luo gave the example of a 22-year-old Taiwanese man who traveled to China and “disappeared” because he was fleeing from a fraud investigation.

Luo suggested many of the 40-plus unexplained and unresolved disappearances involved young Taiwanese who traveled to China seeking job opportunities. China was making a big push to lure Taiwanese workers and entrepreneurs to the mainland before the Chinese economy turned sour during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

The SEF chief tartly advised young Taiwanese to remember that China’s unemployment rate is stratospheric these days, especially for young people.

“Youth unemployment has risen so high that no more high-paying jobs would be left for Taiwanese,” he said. “People should have some common sense.”

Luo advised young Taiwanese to be suspicious of “highly profitable” job offers from the mainland, and cautioned his audience that the Chinese Communist government could arrest them and make them disappear at any moment, since it has nothing resembling Western or Taiwanese standards for the rule of law.

China has sidelined its effort to pull Taiwanese ashore with dubious job offers, and instead is trying to lure them with easy tourist visas known as “Taiwan Compatriot Permits.”

However, Beijing is also cracking down on anyone it views as a “Taiwan independence separatist,” a very vague charge that could get almost anyone from Taiwan tossed in jail without due process.

In fact, the “22 guidelines” published by the Chinese Communist government in June for dealing with “Taiwanese separatists” include the death penalty. Members of the U.S. Congressional Taiwan Caucus promptly condemned these guidelines as a “significant threat to peace and stability in the region.”

Shortly after the 22 guidelines were announced, the Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) upgraded its travel alert warning for China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and advised Taiwanese citizens to avoid traveling to Chinese territory unless absolutely necessary.

Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released photographs and videos Thursday from a village in southern Lebanon where “every house” was turned into a Hezbollah terrorist facility, preparing for a future attack on Israel’s Galilee region.

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari published a video, in English, in which he toured the ruins of a home raided by Israeli soldiers — a home where a vast arsenal of Hezbollah weapons had been stored, he said, as part of “Operation: Conquer the Galilee.”

The IDF exposed that plan earlier this month, noting that Hezbollah had used Iranian weapons to prepare for an attack on Israel’s civilian towns far bigger than the Hamas attack of October 7.
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Israel’s northern border communities have been evacuated since October 2023 due to Hezbollah fire, which began without provocation after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. More than 60,000 Israelis have been displaced.

Under the ceasefire deal cemented in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah was supposed to have left southern Lebanon, and the only armed forces in the area were supposed to be the Lebanese military and United Nations peacekeeping troops.

Instead, Hezbollah continued to stockpile weapons in the border region, often building dual-purpose civilian homes and settlements in the area.

The IDF is conducting what it calls limited and targeted operations in southern Lebanon to remove Hezbollah outposts near the Israeli border. It is also launching airstrikes on Hezbollah leaders and bases elsewhere in Lebanon.

Quote:Argentine lawmakers voted on Wednesday to uphold President Javier Milei’s veto of a controversial university financing bill that the government denounced as jeopardizing its fiscal balance and economic recovery goals.

Milei’s veto was upheld after the motion failed to obtain the two-thirds of votes required to overturn it in the lower house, with 85 yays and 159 nays. Milei’s party, Liberty Advances, does not have a majority in Congress. Argentine leftists responded to the president’s veto with violent protests, calling to strike and take over universities.

The bill, initially passed by opposition lawmakers in both chambers of the Argentine Congress in September, sought to dramatically increase funding for Argentina’s 60 public universities, and included provisions to update the universities’ budgets on a monthly basis based on inflation, retroactive to December 1, 2023.

The proposal appeared to be a gesture of defiance against Milei, who took office on December 13 promising a series of “shock therapy” economic measures to overturn years of difficulties that dramatically worsened during the administration of socialist former President Alberto Fernández (2019-2023). Milei’s policies have resulted in a reduction of inflation in Argentina, going from 25 percent in December to four percent in August. Milei has fiercely maintained that his “zero deficit” goal is non-negotiable.

Milei formally vetoed the bill last week. The Argentine president explained in an official statement that the “irresponsible” proposal did not specify where the resources to increase the universities’ budgets would come from. The statement further asserted that Milei will veto any bill that infringes on fiscal balance.

Quote:Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE) opened an investigation and filed charges on Tuesday against the nation’s far-left President Gustavo Petro and members of his 2022 presidential campaign for alleged violations of spending limits.

According to the electoral authority, Petro’s campaign stands accused of exceeding the established campaign spending limits and receiving prohibited funding from legal entities in accordance with Colombian law. Petro responded to the accusations by claiming that the investigation is part of a purported “coup” plot to overthrow his leftist government.

Petro, a former member of the Marxist M19 guerilla, took office as Colombia’s first-ever leftist president in August 2022 after defeating outsider businessman Rodolfo Hernández in the June 2022 runoff election with 50.44 percent of the votes. Petro ran as the candidate of the “Historic Pact for Colombia,” a coalition of leftist parties and organizations that includes Humane Colombia, a party founded by Petro.

Following five-month-long proceedings that reportedly included multiple postponements and a four-hour long deliberation period on Tuesday, seven out of CNE’s nine total magistrates voted in favor of presenting charges against Petro, his campaign manager and current CEO of the state-owned oil company Ecopetrol Ricardo Roa, and three other individuals that worked in the president’s 2022 campaign. The charges involved the “alleged violation of the financing regime of electoral campaigns” across both rounds of the election.

In addition to Petro and the four former top members of his campaign, the Humane Colombia party and Patriotic Union — a party founded by members of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) terrorist organization — are also part of the investigation. According to CNE’s statement, both parties were designated by the Historic Pact for Colombia coalition as responsible for the audit and presentation of income and expense reports of the Colombian President’s campaign to the corresponding authorities.

During the first round of the election, CNE detailed through its press release, Petro’s campaign allegedly overspent some 3.7 billion Colombian pesos (roughly $876,750) by omitting to properly report several contributions, loans, and payments made by the campaign at the time.

The alleged overspending of Petro’s campaign during the second round of the election, CNE further explained, totaled some $1.64 billion pesos (roughly $389,100) and stems from the campaign’s omission in payment and contributions reports.

In addition, the electoral authority accused Petro’s campaign of having engaged in prohibited financing by receiving several contributions from legal entities in violation of the law — accusing the Humane Colombia and Patriotic Union parties of allegedly allowing said prohibited financing.

Quote:Former President Donald Trump announced “Operation Aurora,” aimed at expediting the removal of “every criminal network operating” in the United States, such as the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang.

During a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday, Trump explained that if elected president, he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in order to “target and dismantle” all criminal networks operating in the country. Trump added during his speech that the border would be sealed, and the illegal immigration “invasion” would be stopped.

“In honor of Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley — beautiful Laken — Rachel Morin, and all of the others that are dead, and/or mortally wounded at the hands of migrants who should never have been allowed into our country, I’m announcing today, that upon taking office, we will have an Operation Aurora at the federal level to expedite the removals of these savage gangs,” Trump announced. “And, I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — think of that, 1798, this was put there 1798, that’s a long time ago.”

Trump added that as part of invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, “every migrant criminal network operating on American soil” would be targeted and dismantled.
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“We will begin the task of finding and deporting every single illegal alien gang member from our country. We’ll get them out. This will be a major national undertaking,” Trump added, noting that “newly published data” from ICE shows that there are now “13,099 illegal aliens convicted of murder” who had been allowed into the U.S.

As Breitbart News’s Neil Munro has previously reported, ICE revealed in a letter to Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX), which was obtained by Fox News, that as of July 21, 2024, there were roughly “662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories” currently on “ICE’s national docket.” This number included migrants who were “detained by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket.”

In the letter to Gonzalez, ICE explained that out of this number, there were 435,719 illegal migrants who were “convicted criminals,” which includes 13,099 murderers who were not detained, Fox News reported:

Your letter requests the number of noncitizens on ICE’s docket convicted or charged with a crime. As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges.

During his speech, Trump referenced an article from the New York Times regarding how TdA gang members were sneaking into the U.S. “among the millions of migrants who have crossed the border,” adding that the gang was “peddling drugs, guns, and women” throughout the nation.

“In Colorado, the gang even got a green light to shoot police officers,” Trump added. “Did you know that the gang got the okay to kill your police?” Trump asked. “By the way, that’s the New York Times, not me.”

The Tren de Aragua gang is described as a transnational crime organization, which is known for engaging in criminal activities such as “homicide, abduction, extortion, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and human trafficking.”

Quote:Airplane manufacturer Boeing is preparing to significantly slash its workforce amid a strike and the company’s aircraft safety issues.

The company is planning to cut ten percent of its workforce — approximately 17,000 people, CNBC reported on Friday.

The move comes “as the company’s losses mount and a machinist strike that has idled its aircraft factories enters its fifth week,” the article notes, adding Boeing is also delaying the launch of its 777X wide-body plane until 2026.

CEO Kelly Ortberg is more than two months into his tenure and has been tasked with helping the company regain stability following significant issues with safety and manufacturing.

One example of a safety issue was when a Boeing plane carrying 174 passengers lost a wheel in midair after taking off from Los Angeles International Airport in July, according to Breitbart News, noting that  it was the second such incident this year.

Another incident happened in May when a Boeing plane made an emergency landing in Indonesia due to an engine fire. There were 468 passengers on board the jet, per Breitbart News.

Quote:A mob ransacked a cargo train Friday on Chicago’s West Side, and several people among the group were arrested as a result.

Video footage shows the incident when the mob swarmed a cargo train in South Austin and carried away boxes of merchandise, ABC 7 reported, noting the heist went on for about an hour until police officers arrived at the scene.

A witness named Princess Shaw said she watched several people break into the freight cars. Fox 32 reported that six people were arrested following the burglary.

“This is wild!” a person from behind the camera exclaimed while filming the incident. “They stealing!” she added. Police said some of the stolen items included air fryers, other appliances, and what appeared to be flat screen televisions.

Video footage shows the mob putting boxes into the back of vehicles at the scene. According to the Fox report, about 30 people were involved in the incident:
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A spokesperson for Union Pacific later explained that “the train was stopped, awaiting an interchange with a partner railroad, when thieves began opening containers.”

Per the ABC 7 report, police officers who were called to the scene drew their weapons as at least one of the vehicles sped away.

Quote:Federal prosecutors filed charges against 25-year-old Ricardo Prieto-Simental, a Mexican national accused of biting and attacking a Border Patrol agent near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in September. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced the filing of charges against Prieto-Simental and the prosecution of several other migrants for assault on U.S. Border Patrol agents in other recent incidents in the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector.

As reported by Breitbart Texas, an unidentified Border Patrol agent was attacked while on patrol near Sunland Park, New Mexico. As the agent attempted to apprehend a migrant for crossing the border alongside several others, a struggle ensued. The migrant, later identified as Ricardo Prieto-Simental of Mexico, allegedly punched and bit the Border Patrol agent on September 19 while being led to a transport vehicle. News of the assault highlighted a rise in assaults against agents, particularly in the El Paso Sector. According to CBP, in the El Paso Sector, which includes Sunland Park, New Mexico, agents have seen the number of assaults rise from 46 in 2021 to more than 70 this year since October.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Prieto-Simental fled from agents and then attempted to break a cell phone on a rock. He then threw the phone at a Border Patrol Agent’s head, prosecutors stated. The Border Patrol agent then attempted to place handcuffs on Prieto-Simental, who allegedly began punching, kicking, and biting the Border Patrol agent. Prieto-Simental reportedly bit the agent on the left forearm, breaking the skin and resulting in a bite mark and bruising.

Prieto-Simental is charged with assault of a federal agent and is being detained pending trial. The announcement last week by the Department of Justice highlighted several other prosecutions as part of an effort by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI, and the Border Patrol to combat the rising assaults on agents along the southwest border.

In a similar case, Enrique Rodriguez-Salazar, 26, a Mexican national, was approached by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on September 26, 2024. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, when agents attempted to detain Rodriguez, who was lying on the ground, he resisted and threw a handful of dirt into an agent’s face, hitting him in the eyes. After being hit, the agent deployed his taser and subdued Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is charged with assault of a federal agent and appeared before a federal judge. He is also being detained pending the resolution of his case.

In another case highlighted in the United States Attorney’s office announcement, Erika Jasmin Lobato-Melendez pleaded guilty to assaulting a federal officer involving physical contact for her role in an attack on a Border Patrol agent that occurred on May 29, 2024. When a Border Patrol agent encountered a group of five individuals, including three children, walking along the border wall Lobato-Melendez, a Salvadoran national, bit the Agent on the forearm with enough force to cause bruising and abrasions through her uniform jacket. As a result, the agent required medical treatment.

At sentencing, Lobato-Melendez faces up to eight years in federal prison.

Quote:An Orthodox Jewish girls school in Toronto, Canada, was raked by gunfire early Saturday morning for the second time in five months.

The targeted assault came on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the year in Judaism, as Canada sees a rise in anti-Semitic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza precipitated by the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

AFP reports no injuries were sustained after shots were fired from a vehicle at around 4 am (0800 GMT) at the Bais Chaya Mushka girls school. The only damage was a broken window, according to authorities.

The school in the North York area of Toronto was targeted in a similar incident in May, as Breitbart News reported, and police believe the two shootings are connected.

Police are not releasing any details about suspects at this time,  Insp. Paul Krawczyk told a media conference.

Krawczyk said the hate crime unit is involved in the investigation, adding that it is particularly concerning the incident happened on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, one of the most sacred days in the Jewish calendar.

“We understand this is deeply unsettling for the Jewish community,” he said.

Quote:Ukrainian military recruitment officers raided restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv, checking military registration documents and detaining men who were not in compliance, local media reported Saturday.

Officers reportedly descended on Kyiv’s Palace of Sports venue after a concert Friday night by Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy. Video footage aired by local media outlets appears to show officers stationed outside the doors of the concert hall intercepting men as they exit. In the footage, officers appear to be forcibly detaining some men.

Checks were also conducted at Goodwine, an upscale shopping center, and Avalon, a popular restaurant.

It is unusual for such raids to take place in the capital, and reflects Ukraine’s dire need for fresh recruits. All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country.

Local reports said raids were also conducted in clubs and restaurants across other Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv and Dnipro in eastern and central Ukraine.

Ukraine has intensified its mobilization drive this year. A new law came into effect this spring stipulating that those eligible for military service must input their information into an online system or face penalties.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that it struck a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partially occupied Luhansk region that provides fuel for Russia’s war effort.

“Oil and oil products were stored at this base, which were supplied, in particular, for the needs of the Russian army,” Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram.

Quote:Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman urged international organizations Sunday to respond to a claim that several Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August.

DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said Russian troops shot and killed nine Ukrainian “drone operators and contractors” on Oct. 10 after they had surrendered.

Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram that he sent letters to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the claim, calling it “another crime committed by the Russians.”

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said Russian troops had killed 16 captured Ukrainian soldiers in the partially occupied Donetsk region.

There was no immediate response from Russian officials.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Sunday that its air defenses had shot down 31 of 68 drones launched at Ukraine by Russia overnight into Sunday in the regions of Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, Sumy and Cherkasy. A further 36 drones were “lost” over various areas, it said, likely having been electronically jammed.

The air force added that ballistic missiles struck Odesa and Poltava while Chernihiv and Sumy came under attack by a guided air missile. Local authorities didn’t report any casualties or damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had launched around 900 guided aerial bombs, more than 40 missiles and 400 drones against Ukraine over the past week.

Zelenskyy appealed on social platform X to Ukraine’s allies to “provide the necessary quantity and quality of air defense systems” and “make decisions for our sufficient range”. Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 13 Ukrainian drones were shot down over three regions of Russia: six each in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, and one in the Bryansk region, all of which border Ukraine.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced hope Friday that the war with Russia will end next year, speaking during a visit to Berlin to ask for sustained military support.

As Ukraine faces a gruelling third winter at war, Zelensky has been seeking support on a two-day whirlwind tour of European capitals that took him to London, Paris and Rome.

Visiting Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelensky, dressed in his trademark military clothes, thanked Germany for its backing and said that “it is very important for us that this assistance does not decrease next year”.

He said he would present Scholz with his plan for winning the war, voicing hope that the conflict would end “no later than next year, 2025”.

“Ukraine more than anyone else in the world wants a fair and speedy end to this war,” Zelensky said. “The war is destroying our country, taking the lives of our people.”

Scholz pledged Germany and EU partners would send more defence equipment this year, and German aid worth four billion euros in 2025, vowing that “we will not let up in our support for Ukraine”.

Scholz said he and the Ukrainian leader agreed on the need for a peace conference that includes Russia, but that a peace “can only be brought about on the basis of international law”.

“We will not accept a peace dictated by Russia,” Scholz said.

Zelensky later wrapped up his tour by meeting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The Ukrainian leader has been seeking fresh military and financial aid from his European allies amid fears of dwindling support if Donald Trump wins the US presidency next month.

Quote:Poland will enact a temporary ban on asylum claims to “regain control and ensure safety” in the country, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Saturday.

Speaking at a convention in the Polish capital of Warsaw, Prime Minister Tusk said that “the state must regain 100 per cent control over who comes and enters Poland” and therefore next week he will put forward plans to enact “a temporary territorial suspension of the right to asylum”.

The move will put the neo-liberal leader at odds with Brussels, where Tusk previously served as European Council President from 2014 to 2019 during which he was a central figure in opposing the United Kingdom’s Brexit withdrawal from the EU, which was largely driven by a desire to regain sovereignty over British borders and to clamp down on mass migration.

In a stark about-face, Tusk argued Saturday that his left-liberal Civic Platform government “will not respect European ideas that undermine Poland’s security, such as the EU migration pact,” according to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

Earlier this year, Brussels pushed through a sweeping reform to its asylum rules, controversially including a redistribution scheme to disperse supposed asylum seekers throughout the bloc.

Member states that refuse to take in migrants from other nations will face fines of €20,000 per head. Countries like Poland and Hungary objected to the measures, arguing that they incurred great expense to protect their borders — both countries having erected border fences — and should not be punished for the failures of other EU nations to protect their borders.

“We will reduce to a minimum illegal migration in Poland, we will eradicate those practices that de facto bypassed Polish interests, which violated the security of Polish women and Poles, and the Polish state. And we will eliminate these practices to zero,” the prime minister vowed.

Quote:French anti-terror prosecutors said Saturday that an Afghan national is being investigated on terrorism charges over a suspected attack plot.

The 22-year-old suspect was among three people who authorities revealed earlier this week were detained in the southern Toulouse region.

The two other people were released from custody.

Authorities said that an investigation that was opened on Sept. 27 subsequently revealed a suspected “plan for violent action targeting people in a football stadium or a shopping center” allegedly linked to the Afghan suspect.

They said they found “several elements” allegedly linking the person to “radicalization” and “adherence to the ideology of the Islamic State” group.

Quote:The Kingdom of Denmark will pay for an “integration plan” and a prosthetic leg for a Nigerian pirate after granting him residency, two years after he attacked the Danish Navy off the coast of Africa.

Nigerian Lucky Frances will receive taxpayer-funded aid in attaining employment and education to help him “integrate” into Denmark after being brought to the country in 2021 when he lost his leg in a firefight with the Danish navy after his band of pirates attacked the Esbern Snare frigate off the coast of Africa, the local BT newspaper reports.

Not only did the African pirate avoid imprisonment for attacking the Danish sailors, despite being found guilty, but he was also granted a residence permit to remain in the country earlier this year. Adding insult to injury, a court ordered that the state pay for the Nigerian national to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.

“This is absolutely absurd. That man should never have been in Denmark and to imagine that he can now be meaningfully integrated in Denmark is completely over the moon,” said integration spokesman for the conservative-populist Danish People’s Party, Mikkel Bjørn.

Asked if it would be better to try to integrate Lucky, Bjørn retorted: “Well, his skills are to be a pirate, right? In any case, I can’t see that he can make a meaningful contribution to Danish society.”

“No, he shouldn’t be let out at all. He has tried to kill Danish soldiers, and therefore he should be in prison or in a closed immigration centre,” he added.

Even liberal Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said per Newsweek: “I cannot defend this decision.”

This event took place last Saturday.

Quote:The man arrested Saturday afternoon outside Donald Trump’s Coachella, California, rally had a shotgun and a handgun in his possession, at least one that was loaded.

The New York Post reported that the shotgun was loaded while other outlets described the handgun as loaded. What is not in contention is at least one of the guns was loaded and that the man, a 49-year-old Las Vegas resident, also had a “high capacity” magazine with him.

FOX LA noted that the 49-year-old had multiple driver’s licenses and “was also in possession of multiple passports with different names.”

The man was taken into custody for possessing the loaded firearm and for possessing the magazine with higher capacity than legal in California, which is the most stringently gun-controlled state in the Union.

The Daily Mail quoted the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office saying, “This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event.”

Quote:A man in illegal possession of a shotgun and a loaded handgun was arrested at an intersection near Donald Trump's rally in Coachella, California, on Saturday, police said.

The 49-year-old suspect, Vem Miller, was driving a black SUV when he was stopped at a security checkpoint by officers, who located the two firearms and a "high-capacity magazine".

Mr Miller was then taken into custody "without incident", the Riverside County Sheriff's office said. He was later released and told US media he was a Trump supporter who was not planning to harm the Republican presidential candidate.

The US Secret Service said Trump “was not in any danger”, and that the incident did not impact protective operations.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco also said that the encounter did not affect the safety of Trump or the rally's attendees.

Although it was impossible to speculate about what was in the mind of the suspect, Mr Bianco said he "truly believed" that his officers had prevented a third assassination attempt.

He added that it might be impossible to prove that this was the intent of Mr Miller, who he described as "a lunatic".

Mr Bianco is an elected official and a Republican who has previously expressed support for Trump. He is also acting as a surrogate - a representative - for Trump's re-election campaign.

Mr Miller himself told the Southern California News Group that he was "shocked" at his arrest, while denying accusations that he wanted to hurt Trump.

He also told Fox News that he "always" travelled around with guns in his vehicle, but had never fired one.

Before his release on a $5,000 (£3,826) bail, Mr Miller was charged with two misdemeanour weapons charges. No federal charges have been filed.

A federal law enforcement official told the BBC's US partner CBS News there was no indication of an assassination attempt connected to this incident.

Federal authorities say they are still investigating the incident, and it would be up to them to pursue any additional charges.

Quote:Youth sex trafficking and its myriad cruelties tripled under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a report in TheFreePress.com.

TheFreePress.com described some of the harms inflicted on youth migrants under the lax policies set by Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas’ tenure:

Sex-trafficking victims often suffer horrific abuse, as I discovered when I spoke to Landon Dickeson, the 36-year-old executive director for Bob’s House of Hope in Denton, Texas, the only shelter for male sex-trafficking victims ages 18 and up in the country. Dickeson says they’ve seen teens from Central and South America who have been so tortured by their traffickers they can barely function.

Dickeson described caring for teens who have brain damage from being so heavily drugged—teens who have had their fingernails pulled out, and lemon juice poured on wounds. When I asked to interview one of their migrant residents, Dickeson said they simply weren’t in any condition to speak to anyone, much less a reporter. “We think the cartels and gangs use torture as a control method for the males,” said Dickeson. “They’re not going to fight back if they chain their victims to a radiator, beat them up frequently, or drug them.”

The abuse and prostitution may be forced on young migrants who are indebted to smugglers and their affiliated trafficking gangs in the United States. If they cannot pay their debts, their families can lose farms and homes to the banks that hold the loans.

The rising number of youth sex-trafficking cases were posted at the Department of Health and Human Services when TheFreePress demanded the data under the Freedom of Information Act. The agency is responsible for checking and issuing Certification and Eligibility Letters to the children and youths who first request aid after escaping sex traffickers.

The agency issued 1,143 letters in 2021, 2,226 letters in 2022, and 2,148 letters in 2024 under the welcome policies set by border chief Alejandro Mayorkas. The agency has not posted any data since the first week of September 2023.

The incomplete data adds up to 5,517 letters since October 2020, or an average of 1,8,37 letters per year.

Quote:The New York Times is attacking Rachel Campos-Duffy, a co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend, for citing its reporting regarding President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) losing contact with tens of thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) who have been released into the United States.

In February 2023, the New York Times issued a bombshell report, revealing that the Biden-Harris administration was releasing UACs to adult sponsors in the United States — the majority of whom are not their biological parents — as quickly as possible.

As a result, the Times discovered, HHS officials “could not reach more than 85,000 children” after they were released to adult sponsors in the United States.

The Times reported:

But as more and more children have arrived, the Biden White House has ramped up demands on staffers to move the children quickly out of shelters and release them to adults. Caseworkers say they rush through vetting sponsors. [Emphasis added]

While H.H.S. checks on all minors by calling them a month after they begin living with their sponsors, data obtained by The Times showed that over the last two years, the agency could not reach more than 85,000 children. Overall, the agency lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children.
[Emphasis added]

Late last week, the Times attacked Rachel Campos-Duffy for having cited their report during an interview in June with former President Donald Trump. In the interview, Campos-Duffy abbreviated the Times’ reporting and referred to the UACs as “lost.”

“Will you commit to finding those children?” Campos-Duffy asked Trump.

The Times claims that Campos-Duffy’s characterization of the UACs as “lost” is inaccurate because “the Times did not report that the children were ‘lost,’ but that they were more susceptible to exploitative and illegal working conditions.”

Fox News defended Campos-Duffy, saying her using the term “lost” to describe the UACs that HHS could not reach after they were released to adult sponsors is “an issue of semantics” and nothing more.

In August, evidence mounted that the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to release UACs to adult sponsors as quickly as possible has spurred an explosion in labor and sex trafficking among such migrant children.

Quote:The federal government has opened an investigation into a staffing company that allegedly supplied illegal workers to a controversial food company in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, according to a local TV report.

Prosperity Services allegedly supplied illegals to Charleroi’s Fourth Street Foods, a company that assembles prepared meals for sale across the country.

Fourth Street employs 700 migrants for low-paying jobs, most of whom are supplied by third party staffing companies that do not offer normal workplace benefits, such as health care. However, Fourth Street executives say they only hired workers with legal work permits, according to WTAE-TV.

Still, the investigators say at least one contractor, Prosperity Services, is suspected of paying migrants cash and adding them into the pool of candidates for Fourth Street Foods even though they are not legally eligible to work in the U.S.

Federal officials reportedly said the contractor “knowingly paid undocumented non-citizen employees with cash” and “transported and housed undocumented non-citizens for employment purposes.”

The investigation continues on the tail of a raid on the offices of Prosperity owner Andy Ha where a million dollars in cash and company records were seized.

Quote:The far-left New York Times disgraced itself Monday by clearing sitting Vice President Kamala Harris of obvious and blatant plagiarism. Now the expert used by the Times to exonerate Harris says he did not do a full analysis.

Monday afternoon, journalist Christopher Rufo dropped the bombshell that Harris “plagiarized at least a dozen sections of her criminal justice book, Smart on Crime.”

The 2009 nonfiction work, coauthored with Joan O’C. Hamilton, was written while Harris was the district attorney of San Francisco and gearing up to run (successfully) for California’s attorney general.

With the help of Dr. Stefan Weber, an internationally famous “plagiarism hunter,” Rufo provided one jaw-dropping example after another of Harris directly copying and pasting paragraph after paragraph into her book that were written by others. She did this without attribution or quote marks. In other words, she not only stole text from other sources, but she also stole ideas, reporting, and scholarship. That is textbook plagiarism.

Additionally, per Rufo, “Harris copied virtually an entire Wikipedia article into her book without providing attribution to Wikipedia” [and] “fabricated a source reference, inventing a nonexistent page number.”

Kamala has been caught red-handed. There is no defending this. Nevertheless, while reporting on the Rufo bombshells, I warned Breitbart News readers that the “corporate media will almost certainly either ignore this scandal or attempt to wrist-flick and ‘fact check’ it away as a ‘Republican-fabricated controversy.’

Within just a few hours, that is precisely what the New York Times did. “Conservative Activist Seizes on Passages From Harris Book,” reads the easily predicted Times headline.

Even more predictable… The Times article lied to its readers to protect Kamala:

The passages called into question by Mr. Rufo on his Substack platform involve about 500 words in the approximately 65,000-word, 200-page book. Ms. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, wrote the book with another author when she was the district attorney in San Francisco.

In a review of the book, The New York Times found that none of the passages in question took the ideas or thoughts of another writer, which is considered the most serious form of plagiarism. Instead, the sentences copy descriptions of programs or statistical information that appear elsewhere.

Then comes this beauty… The Times enlisted its own plagiarism expert to back its claim that this is no big deal:

Jonathan Bailey, a plagiarism consultant in New Orleans and the publisher of Plagiarism Today, said on Monday that his initial reaction to Mr. Rufo’s claims was that the errors were not serious, given the size of the document.

Then the Times accused Rufo of racism.

But now the Times’ lies are all coming undone.

First, Rufo torpedoed the Times’ primary defense:

The Times claims that I only argued that Kamala Harris plagiarized “five sections” involving “about 500 words.” But this isn’t true. In my story, I wrote that Stefan Weber argued there are “more than a dozen” instances of “‘vicious plagiarism.'” This past Saturday, I provided the Times not only with my written analysis, which argues that there are “more than a dozen,” but with Weber’s full dossier, which included 18 allegations of varying severity. So, the Times deliberately withheld this crucial contextual information from its readers and from the supposed plagiarism expert, who, based on this limited information, called it “not serious.” They could have easily confirmed the “more than a dozen” point, but instead, lied by omission.

Further, Rufo posts passages he said he gave directly to the Times that make mincemeat out of the claim “that none of the passages in question took the ideas or thoughts of another writer[.]” The fact she cut and pasted a Wikipedia page alone kills that defense.

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris raised doubts on Tuesday about whether November’s election will be “free and fair.”

Harris has not yet answered if she would support certifying a Trump victory, although she has been highly critical of Republicans who objected to President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.

“Why are people acting like this is going to be a free and fair election and he won’t try to steal it?” Charlamagne tha God asked Harris.

Harris replied the election would only be “free and fair” if Americans “stand up for that.”

“It will be a free and fair election if we, the American people, stand up for that,” Harris said before delivering a word salad.

You know, I see it as this. I think that the democracy has it’s like two points of nature. One, there’s a fact about a democracy that when it is intact, it the strength that it possesses in terms of the protection of people’s individual rights and liberties. When a democracy is intact, we protect your rights and your liberties.

Harris’s answer comes as top congressional Democrats told Axios on Thursday they would not commit to certifying the 2024 election if former President Donald Trump wins.

The failure to commit to certifying the election would prove many members to be hypocrites, including House Oversight Committee ranking member and former January 6 committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who told Axios that he is unsure if he’ll certify a Trump win.

I agree with her on this, I don't think there will be a free and fair election in the US. After all, those guys in Georgia that counted non vetted ballots as legitimate votes are still lurking around. What would stop them from trying to pull off another move like that one next November?

Quote:The Biden-Harris administration is quietly threatening an arms embargo against Israel, citing humanitarian concerns about the war in Gaza, where Hamas continues to hold Israeli hostages while Israel tries to stop it from regrouping.

The revelation about a potential arms embargo came Tuesday in a leaked letter from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to his Israeli counterpart, Lloyd Austin [the author meant Yoav Gallant instead], threatening to withhold weapons if the Gaza situation deteriorates.
...
The letter claims, without evidence, that Israel is blocking aid to Gaza, and that humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza have plummeted. (Israel claims the opposite — that it continues to expand humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.)

The aid demands that Israel “surge” aid to Gaza, and that it end the “isolation” of northern Gaza — where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered the evacuation of Palestinian civilians due to an ongoing offensive against Hamas.

The letter also defends the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in distributing aid, even as Austin admits that UNRWA has been linked to terror and the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that launched the war.

Effectively, the letter demands an end to the current Israeli offensive in Gaza, and holds Israel responsible to harm to civilians due to the war. The letter does not mention the remaining 101 hostages or make any demands of Hamas.

Austin gives Gallant and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer 30 days in which Israel is to comply with his demands.

“Failure to demonstrate a sustained committment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for U.S. policy under [National Security Memorandum]-20 and relevant U.S. law,” the letter states.

NSM-20 and other U.S. laws and regulations require recipients of U.S. military aid to comply with human rights norms. A review of Israel’s conduct in May was worded in a sloppy fashion that left the administration’s position unclear.

Countries that fall short of the standards of international law — as judged by the bureaucrats in the State Department, widely considered to have an anti-Israel bias — could lose their access to American weapons as a result.

A Pentagon spokesperson was on the defensive in a briefing on Tuesday, claiming that Austin’s letter had been “personal” or “private” and had not been intended to be leaked. Left-wing critics of Israel have been demanding an arms embargo on Israel since the start of the war.

And how exactly does calling it a private letter make it any better!?

Quote:Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren blasted the Biden-Harris administration Tuesday after news emerged that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had threatened an arms embargo against Israel over Gaza.

As Breitbart News reported, Austin wrote a letter to his Israeli counterpart that was leaked to the media and which included a threat to cut off weapons to Israel unless the humanitarian situation in Gaza improved substantially.

The letter claimed, without evidence, that Israel has been blocking aid and that the situation had deteriorated. It also effectively demanded that Israel end its fight against Hamas in northern Gaza. (It made no demands of Hamas at all.)

Oren, who was the ambassador during the administration of President Barack Obama, and later accused Obama of creating a gap between the U.S. and Israel, has tried to maintain a bipartisan stance and stay out of U.S. politics.

But in the face of a threatened arms embargo, with Israel still under attack, Oren said he could no longer be silent:

The Biden Administration’s warning to suspend arms to Israel unless the “humanitarian situation” in Gaza improves is deeply disturbing. Israel strongly denies that any crisis exists and works daily to ensure a fully adequate food supply to Gaza. Though I’ve spent my career striving for bipartisanship, at this fateful time, I cannot keep silent. The administration’s willingness to abandon Israel in the middle of a war for our nation’s survival casts doubts on America’s dependability as an ally and its commitment to defend the Free World.

Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday after the European leader insulted Israel by suggesting that it would not have existed except for the United Nations.

France, the former colonial power in Lebanon, has demanded a ceasefire there for the past several weeks, as Israel has made advances against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization.

As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, France also called for an arms embargo against Israel, calling for an end to the war against Hamas in Gaza. Netanyahu responded by saying that Israel would win regardless, but that France’s shame would endure.

On Tuesday, Macron insisted that Israel should respect the United Nations, despite its pronounced anti-Israel bias. His reason: he claimed that Israel would not exist but for the United Nations.

As Politico’s Europe edition reported:

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to “ignore United Nations decisions” during a weekly meeting with his ministers Tuesday, according to French media reports, confirmed by a participant in the meeting.

“Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a U.N. decision,” he is quoted as saying, referencing the U.N. General Assembly’s November 1947 vote that terminated the British mandate of Palestine and split the land into a Jewish and an Arab state.

Netanyahu responded in a statement:

A reminder to the French President: It was not a UN decision that established the State of Israel but the victory that was achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of our heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, including from the Vichy regime in France.

It would also be worthwhile to recall that in recent decades, the UN has approved hundreds of antisemitic decisions against the State of Israel, the purpose of which is to deny the one and only Jewish state’s right to exist and its ability to defend itself.

Quote:Communist dictator Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanuayu on Monday evening, calling him “Hitler” and accusing him of being the “son of the devil” days after he had the country break diplomatic ties with Israel.

Ortega, whose regime maintains close ties with Iran and other authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia, broke ties with “the fascist and genocidal government of Israel” on Friday in response to Israel’s ongoing self-defense operations against the jihadist group Hamas. Nicaragua joined the fellow authoritarian regimes of Cuba, Venezuela, and other far-left governments in the region such as Colombia in taking similar action against Israel following Hamas’ slaughter of an estimated 1,200 and other atrocities in its October 7, 2023, attack against Israel.

The dictator’s decision stemmed from a “request” by the regime-controlled Nicaraguan National Assembly, which  – reportedly with the presence of diplomatic personnel from Mexico, Cuba, Russia, and the Palestinian Authority as guests – passed a motion on Friday urging Ortega to cut ties with Israel. The Assembly’s motion described Israel as the “enemy of humanity” and accused it of “endangering world peace” through the alleged “complicity and logistical and military support of the North American and European empires.”

Friday’s decision marks the third time Ortega has ordered Nicaragua cut ties with Israel, which he first did in 1982 during the Sandinista revolution and then in 2010. While the countries restored relations in March 2017, Israel did not have an ambassador stationed in Managua.

Three days later, on Monday evening, Ortega attacked Netanyahu during an official event to mark the 45h anniversary of the Nicaraguan police, comparing him and Israel’s actions to that of Adolf Hitler during Nazi Germany. The communist dictator, a close ally of Russia,

availed himself of the opportunity to also lash out against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately afterwards. Zelensky, like Netanyahu, is Jewish.

“At the head of the government of Israel is a prime minister who is the son of the devil because he carries in practice a policy of terror and he is Hitler,” Ortega said in his speech.

“He is Hitler, yes, the prime minister of Israel is Hitler installed there calling for the destruction of the peoples,” he continued. He then accused Zelensky of being “another Nazi, another son of Hitler, wanting to commit NATO to go to war against the Russian Federation.”

 How curious! That's exactly what I would say about Ortega if I could.
Wait a second!  I just did it!

Quote:Bolivian socialist former president Evo Morales threatened this weekend to order his loyalists to blockade the nation’s roads, causing daily multimillion-dollar losses to the country’s economy, should he be arrested as part of an ongoing probe into accusations of human trafficking and statutory rape.

“We have to mobilize. Possibly, illegally and unjustly they can arrest me, but they will never arrest you. Possibly they have plans against our lives, but the process of change will never end,” Morales told sympathizers during a speech on Saturday marking Columbus Day, which Bolivia celebrates as the “Day of Decolonization.”

Roadblocks and similar blockade tactics serve to paralyze the local economies of the target locations. They make it difficult for residents to make it to work, for people to shop, and – critically – block trucks from bringing in food, medicine, and other key goods to supply stores.

Morales is being investigated on accusations of human trafficking and statutory rape after evidence was found in the southern city of Tarija indicating Morales had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, at a time when Morales was serving his third presidential term. In 2018, a birth certificate in Tarija was found listing Morales as the father of a child born of the same minor at a time when she was 16. The child is now eight years old, according to state media.

The investigation started in 2019 but remained “frozen” until its reactivation in early October led by Bolivian prosecutor Sandra Gutiérrez, who issued an arrest warrant against Morales that was immediately overturned by Attorney General Juan Lanchipa. Lanchipa fired Gutiérrez immediately after she issued the arrest warrant, but was reinstated as prosecutor days later thanks to a ruling issued by a constitutional judge.

Following the reopening of the investigation, Morales “bunkered” himself in the Chapare, Cochabamba, a region considered a political bastion of Morales and his sympathizers, where the socialist former president remains under the protection of loyalists, including local coca leaf farmers.

The Tarija local Prosecutor’s Office summoned Morales to testify on Thursday, but he did not appear. Gutiérrez told reporters on Thursday that a new arrest warrant is being prepared against Morales in response to his refusal to testify.

The prosecutors will also issue arrest warrants for Emeterio Vargas Mamani and Idelsa Pozo Saavedra, the parents of the minor that Morales allegedly raped. A “migration alert” was issued by Bolivian authorities against Morales on Monday to prevent him from leaving the country.

The probe against Morales occurs amidst a lengthy power struggle over control of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism Party (MAS) between Morales and current socialist President Luis Arce, a former protegé of Morales now at odds with his former mentor.

Quote:Speculation has built for weeks over the presence of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia inside Ukraine, and now President Zelensky has acknowledged their presence for the first time.

North Korea, which on paper has one of the largest armies in the world and has been supplying munitions to Russia for months to feed what it calls its special military operation inside Ukraine for months may now be providing direct military aid, Kyiv states for the first time. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to admit what has been discussed by other world leaders and Ukraine war watchers for weeks in his nightly address, reports German newspaper Die Welt, which translates his speech as stating ‘North Korean soldiers are fighting together with Russians’.

Ukrainian state media published Zelensky’s address, in which he said of the development: “We see the alliance between [Russia] and such regimes as North Korea becoming stronger, and is no longer simply the transfer of weapons, it is about the transfer of people from North Korea to the military forces of the occupier.”
...
This development is a clear sign Ukraine’s demands for more weapons, and for permission for the weapons it has already been given to be used in long-range strikes against the Russian interior to degrade its war machine must be heeded. He continued: “It is obvious in such circumstances our relations with partners need to develop further. The frontline needs more support. When we talk about giving Ukraine greater long-range capabilities and more decisive supplies for our forces, it’s not simply a list of military equipment”.

While many foreign nationalities fight in Ukraine, both for Kyiv and for Moscow, the support of the North Korean army could be a significant boost to Russia. On paper, the nation fields and army over one million strong, but as with anything inside secretive nations long under the yoke of communism, to what extent all or a fraction of that total is ready to deploy is obscure.

North Korea does have some apparent advantages, however. While the free world made the very most of the ‘peace dividend’ at the end of the Cold War, cutting military spending and redirecting that money to other purposes — and cutting expensive stockpiles of weapons in the process — North Korea has not, and consequently has 20th-century levels of reserves of Soviet-type ammunition in reserve.

Quote:An automated notification system that warns energy generators that supply is expected to be insufficient to meet predicted demand was activated for the first time in two years on Monday, apparently as the wind simply isn’t blowing fast enough.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) issued a capacity notice on Monday, part of an automated system designed to rectify mis-matches between predicted supply and demand. The notice referred to the Monday afternoon demand spike — when workers get home, turn on the heating, and cook their meals — and showed the system had automatically identified a potential shortfall.

Open source energy data shows this alert is likely down to the confluence of two events: a not inconsiderable increase in demand for energy over the past 24 hours arriving at the same time as flatlining wind power generation. The reasons for these are simple and not exactly uncommon: the United Kingdom is experiencing cold, still weather, leading to more energy being used for domestic heating while wind turbines stand unproductive.

In the early hours of Sunday morning windmills were producing over 60 per cent of the nation’s power, but as the wind dropped this fell to as little as five per cent. Even now, wind accounts for less than ten per cent of national demand, leaving gas to pick up the slack. Burning gas accounted for 56 per cent of power generated on Monday morning, and it has already swung back up to 53 per cent on Monday afternoon just as the evening surge begins.

Gas is generally reliable, but the international market has proven volatile in recent years, making it increasingly expensive. The United Kingdom also has comparatively little bunkering capability, meaning its ability to ride out price surges has proven to be extremely limited.

At midday Monday, demand for electricity was five gigawatts higher than the same time on Sunday, the equivalent to two recently-shut-down coal power plants working at maximum generating capacity.

Quote:The European Union is reportedly demanding that the UK offer up British soldiers for so-called “peacekeeping” missions conducted by Brussels as a part of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s “Brexit reset”.

At a meeting in Luxembourg this week, Eurocrats impressed upon UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy that Britain would be expected to commit its soldiers to EU Common Security and Defence Policy missions if it wants a restructuring of post-Brexit relations, the Financial Times reported.

The globalist-oriented paper cited unnamed sources who explained that Britain would not be expected to participate immediately in EU “peacekeeping” efforts, but “they will do”.

The foreign minister said the meeting was a “historic moment that marks our EU reset” and declared that the UK and Europe’s security is “indivisible”.

“At this time, whether it is the aggression of Russia in Ukraine, the tremendous issues and conflicts in the Middle East, or global affairs and geopolitical affairs more generally, it is hugely important the UK and Europe remain steadfast,” Lammy added.

In a joint statement following the meeting, Lammy and EU High Representative Josep Borrell—the bloc’s top diplomat—said that they “reaffirmed the importance of the relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom for European security and defence and agreed to advance work towards a security partnership to address common threats and challenges.”

Should the leftist Labour government, which is staffed full of anti-Brexit politicians, acquiesce to the demands, it could be seen as a major betrayal of the outcome of the 2016 referendum.

Quote:The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on Iran´s deputy defense minister, senior members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and three airlines over allegations that they supplied drones, missiles and other equipment to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.

Deputy Defense Minister Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari is one of seven senior officials now banned from traveling in Europe and whose assets in the bloc were frozen. The EU said he “is involved in the development of Iran´s (drone) and missile program,” given his high-level defense role.

Iran Air, Mahan Air and Saha Airlines had their assets frozen. The EU said their planes were “used repeatedly to transfer Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles and related technologies to Russia, which have been used in Russia´s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

EU foreign ministers endorsed the sanctions at a meeting in Luxembourg.

In March, the bloc had warned that “were Iran to transfer ballistic missiles and related technology to Russia for use against Ukraine, the EU would be prepared to respond swiftly, including with new and significant restrictive measures.”

EU member countries, with the exception of Hungary, have been supplying weapons and ammunition as well as economic and other support to Ukraine worth some 118 billion euros ($129 billion) since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Quote:Prosecutors asked a Russian court on Monday to deliver a prison sentence of three years and three months to a French citizen arrested on charges of unlawfully collecting information on military issues.

Laurent Vinatier, who was arrested in Moscow in June, earlier admitted guilt, setting the stage for a fast-track trial without a detailed examination of evidence.

Detentions on charges of spying and collecting sensitive data have become increasingly frequent in Russia since it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Vinatier´s arrest came as tensions flared between Moscow and Paris following French President Emmanuel Macron´s comments about the possibility of deploying French troops in Ukraine.

Russian authorities accused Vinatier of failing to register as a “foreign agent” while collecting information about Russia´s “military and military-technical activities” that could be used to the detriment of the country´s security.

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she supported the Biden-Harris administration’s threat to Israel over humanitarian conditions for Palestinians in Gaza — though she denied it warned of an arms embargo.

As Breitbart News reported, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a threat of cutting off arms earlier this week in a letter to Israeli officials. The letter was leaked and the Biden-Harris administration confirmed the threat. It caused an outcry, including protest from former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, who said that the threat by the administration “casts doubts on America’s dependability as an ally and its commitment to defend the Free World.”

Nevertheless, Harris is on board, according to comments she made Wednesday to journalists, as reported by the Times of Israel: “Asked by reporters about the Biden administration’s letter to Israel conditioning continued US military assistance on Jerusalem addressing the Gaza humanitarian crisis, Vice President Kamala Harris says the letter speaks for itself.”

In Harris’s exchange with reporters, however, she denied that the letter threatened an arms embargo:
...
"Do you support the letter the admin sent Israel threatening legal action over military aid?"

KAMALA: "I've issued my statement."

"Are you supporting calling off military aid if the situation in Gaza does not improve?"

KAMALA: "I don't believe that's what the letter said."

"What kind of legal action do you support?"

KAMALA: "We'll take it one step at a time."

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris avoided answering whether she had “any concerns” over the past three and a half years about President Joe Biden’s fitness.

In an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Baier referenced comments Harris had made about former President Donald Trump being “misguided” and “unstable,” and asked her when she “first” noticed Biden’s “mental faculties appeared diminished.”

“You call Donald Trump — he’s misguided, you say now he’s unstable,” Baier said. “He’s not well — you say he’s mentally not stable.”

“You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game, that [he] ran around circles on his staff,” Baier added. “When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished?”
...
“Joe Biden — I have watched from the Oval Office to the Situation Room,” Harris answered. “And, he has the judgment and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people.”

When asked by Baier if “there were no concerns,” Harris interjected to point out Biden was “not on the ballot.”

Baier continued to point out that actor George Clooney had stated “within a few minutes of talking to President Biden at a fundraiser, that he thought this was not the same Joe Biden we saw on the debate stage.”

“Donald Trump is on the ballot,” Harris interjected.

“I understand,” Baier added. “You met with him at least once a week for three and a half years. You didn’t have any concerns?”

Harris added that the “American people have a concern about Donald Trump.”

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris refused to answer a question from Fox News’ Bret Baier about why the Biden-Harris administration allowed Iran to access billions of dollars, deflecting instead to familiar criticisms of Donald Trump.
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Harris sat for a contentious 27-minute interview on Special Report during which the Democratic nominee often evaded questions or tried to shift the focus to her opponent. Her answer on foreign policy was no different. Given Harris’s claim that Iran (and not China) was America’s greatest enemy, Baier asked her, why had she and Biden “relaxed or failed to enforce sanctions on Iran, allowing all of this money to flow into Iran, like billions in oil profits”?

Baier’s premise was solid. As Breitbart News and others reported this week, the U.S. government itself estimates that Iran earned nearly $200 billion from oil revenues after the administration stopped enforcing sanctions on the regime.

Harris’s response: “Let’s go back to Donald Trump.” She noted that Trump had pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which is true — though it was that deal that had also given Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief (and ransom for jailed Americans. The deal also would have allowed Iran to emerge as a nuclear power after roughly a decade, and — crucially — did not prevent Iran from developing its ballistic missiles, as President Barack Obama had suggested.
Harris then brought up a talking points from the 2020 campaign — namely, that Trump had tried to dismiss injuries to American personnel on a base in Iraq after an Iranian missile attack as “headaches.” What Harris failed to mention was that the Iranian attack took place after Trump eliminated Iranian terror general Qasem Soleimani — an operation she and then-candidate Joe Biden had opposed, predicting (incorrectly) that it would lead to war in the Middle East.

As Baier tried to return to the question, Harris simply talked over him, even bringing up the “suckers and losers” hoax. She never explained why the Biden-Harris administration gave Iran access to money for missiles and terror.

If you watch the clip near till the end, she clearly hates that someone doesn't buy her excuses.
The only thing I never understood about Trump was how he never retaliated against Iran after several soldiers got injured in Iraq. Yet, that has nothing to do with billions flowing into Iranian coffers during the present administration.  Why did Biden keep the tariffs on China but not the sanctions against Iran?

Quote:President Kamala Harris could import almost four million migrants in 2025 — and 12.3 million migrants during her four years — by continuing President Joe Biden’s policies, according to a report by pro-migration advocates.

The huge and disruptive inflow of migrants, however, will only raise annual economic growth by one cent for every $10, says the report by the business-funded Brookings Institution.

“We expect net immigration to be significantly higher under a Harris administration than a second Trump administration,” the report says it describes four alternative scenarios:

Net migration in the Harris, high scenario is 3.7 million in 2025 and cumulates to 12.3 million from 2025–2028.
…
Unlike the other scenarios, the Trump, low scenario yields net negative migration. Net migration is around -740,000 in 2025 and -230,000 in 2026 …  Cumulative net migration over the four years is around 410,000.

A 2025 inflow of 3.7 million legal, illegal, quasi-legal, and temporary migrants would deliver one migrant for every American birth. So far, the Harris campaign has signaled she will continue the high-migration policies set by Biden.

Overall, the report says Harris’s high migration policies would grow the U.S. population by 15 million during her four years, or roughly three million new households.

But Trump’s low migration policies would grow the population by almost five million via the rules set for legal migration by Congress in 1990, says the report. The report claims Trump’s focus on Americans will contract the economy by four cents in every $10 during 2025.

The report does not mention the expected rise in ordinary Americans’ salaries and wages in a national labor market. Nor does it mention the pro-family, pro-birthrate impact as housing drops in price once migrants exit. It also ignores the likely civic gains from reduced diversity in the United States, the reduced damage to migrant-sending countries, and the reduced migration chaos and deaths south of the border.

The damage to foreigners was outlined by The Atlantic —  a pro-migration website — when it described the many migrant deaths in the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama:

The morgue is next to the hospital kitchen. [Panamanian doctor Luis Antonio] Moreno said the stench was often intolerable, even before the day this spring when he discovered that the air conditioner had gone out and the bodies inside were decomposing. In March 2023, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has a program to help families track down loved ones who have gone missing while migrating, built a mausoleum in the local cemetery with space for hundreds of bodies, and it’s quickly filling.

At a recent burial ceremony, municipal workers wearing hazmat suits placed 12 white body bags into graves. Ten of the bags were labeled desconocido, or “unknown.” One bore the name of a man from Venezuela whose family had confirmed his identity. Just before the last body bag, which was also the smallest, went into the mausoleum, an ICRC worker opened it and placed a dog tag on the wrist of the 8-month-old Haitian girl inside.

Quote:President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday that he is looking forward to seeing former President Donald Trump imprisoned — right after Vice President Kamala Harris warned that Trump would prosecute his opponents.

Speaking at a rally for Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Biden said:

And folks, look. This is the same guy who’s been held liable for $83 million for sexual abuse and defamation, the same guy for getting rid of Roe V. Wade, the same guy with three other major cases waiting for him when he loses. And by the way, 34 felonies, and so far — he had to get sentenced. He got the sentence kick back, but I want to watch that sentence. Look, Donald Trump is not running for you. He’s running for himself. I think he’s running to stay out of jail.
Earlier, on The Breakfast Club, with host “Charlamagne tha God,” Harris had warned:

Harris: Donald Trump has been very clear that he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies [sic]. He has been very clear that he would take out the independent folks who are in there and put in there instead his loyalists [sic]. So understand, again, you talk about — because this brings back to exactly your point about threats to the to our democracy. Donald Trump would go into the Department of Justice and manipulate it in such a way that it would be used as a weapon against his political enemies.

Charlamagne: Yeah, he’s going to lock y’all up if he gets back in office.

Harris: Well, by the way, he’s going to — You should look at his words. I don’t think that you, as a journalist, should should feel so so sure that —

Charlamagne: One hundred percent.

Harris: Journalists, judges, others — and you know who does that? Dictators do that. Other countries do that.

The irony is that the Department of Justice and elected Democratic prosecutors at the state level have been prosecuting Trump for several years in highly dubious and, critics say, partisan cases.

Quote:The Biden administration on Tuesday urged India to take Canadian allegations of an assassination plot against Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar seriously and cooperate with Canadian investigators.

Canada and India expelled six of each others’ diplomats on Monday as their feud over the matter escalated.

“When it comes to the Canadian matter, we have made clear that the allegations are extremely serious and they need to be taken seriously,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.

“We wanted to see the government of India cooperate with Canada in its investigation. Obviously, they have not. They have chosen an alternate path,” Miller said.

The State Department said on Monday that a representative from India’s Enquiry Committee visited Washington, D.C. as part of an “ongoing investigation” into another assassination plot, in which an Indian national has been charged with trying to hire an assassin to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.

Miller did not provide any details on Monday’s meeting with the Indian representative, other than describing it as a “follow-up on conversations we have been having with the Government of India at the senior-most levels over the past several months.” He insisted the meeting in Washington was planned long before the latest diplomatic row erupted between Canada and India.

“The fact that they sent an Enquiry Committee here, I think, demonstrates that they are taking this seriously,” said White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby said of India’s engagement with the United States.

Canada has accused the Indian government of assassinating Nijjar outside a Vancouver temple in September 2023. Nijjar was a prominent leader in the Khalistan movement, which is dedicated to creating an independent Sikh state from territory in India.

The Indian government considers the Khalistan movement a security threat with links to organized crime and terrorism, and is angry that Canada has provided safe harbor for Sikh separatists. Nijjar was designated as a terrorist by the Indian government in 2020.

India further complains that Canada’s allegations of state involvement in Nijjar’s murder have been made without compelling evidence.

Writing at Firstpost on Tuesday, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) senior fellow Michael Rubin suggested the next escalation could be India labeling Canada as a state sponsor of terrorism for supporting the Khalistani movement.

Rubin argued that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has misrepresented intelligence provided by the United States as firm proof that India commissioned Nijjar’s murder, which he said was more like a “gangland hit” than a state-sponsored assassination. He also accused the Trudeau administration of conflating the Sikh religion with the militant Khalistani movement.

“Perhaps Trudeau believed the volume and frequency of the accusation could trump truth. He also may believe that doubling down on Sikh militants might win him votes in key districts. On both points, he is wrong,” Rubin said.

Quote:Nebraska’s top election official had no authority to strip voting rights from people convicted of a felony, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a decision that could add hundreds of new voters to the rolls and potentially help tip the balance on Nov. 5.

The order by Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen could have kept 7,000 or more Nebraskans from voting in the upcoming election, the American Civil Liberties Union has said. Many of them reside in Nebraska’s Omaha-centered 2nd Congressional District, where both the presidency and the makeup of Congress could be at stake.

Evnen in July had ordered county election officials in Nebraska to reject the voter registrations of those with felony convictions, citing an opinion from the state attorney general. That opinion, which Evnen had requested, deemed as unconstitutional a law passed this year by the Legislature immediately restoring the voting rights of people who have completed the terms of their felony sentences.

“Patty and Selma at the Department of Motor Vehicles may not be constitutional scholars, but they know that they are expected to follow the law,” Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman wrote in the high court’s ruling, criticizing Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers for taking it upon themselves to declare the law unconstitutional. “Do we want to live in a world where every state employee who has a hunch a statute is flawed gets to ignore it?”

Nebraska overall is heavily Republican but is one of only two states — the other is Maine — that apportions its Electoral College votes by congressional district. The Omaha-area district has twice awarded its one vote to Democratic presidential candidates — to Barack Obama in 2008 and again to Joe Biden in 2020. In a 2024 presidential race shown by polling to be a dead heat, a single electoral vote could determine who wins.

Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district by more than 13,000 following a redrawing of the borders in 2021. But the district also has nearly 114,000 independent and third-party voters. In 2020, Biden bested former President Donald Trump there by more than 22,000 votes.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Democratic groups have spent millions there to secure the precious electoral vote — far more than Trump and Republican groups.

Nebraska also has competitive races for one U.S. Senate seat and the 2nd District’s U.S. House seat. Two-term Republican Sen. Deb Fischer faces her strongest challenge yet in independent candidate Dan Osborn, a former union leader who has eschewed both major parties. In the House race, Republican Rep. Don Bacon is running against Democratic state Sen. Tony Vargas in a rematch of the 2022 election, which Bacon narrowly won with 51% of the vote.

The last day to register to vote for the 2024 general election in Nebraska is Oct. 25 and must be done in person. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Quote:Emmanuel Macron’s French government has banned Israeli defence contractors from exhibiting at next month’s Euronaval, a major arms fair in Paris, the second time Israeli companies have been blocked from a French trade show this year.

Israeli companies will not be able to exhibit at the major Euronaval trade fair in Paris in November, they have been told. Seven Israeli companies, including shipbuilders and other military equipment manufacturers had been registered as exhibitors for the show, which draws major defence firms and potential customers for naval equipment from around the world together.

Euronaval said in a statement on Wednesday that they had been informed by the French government of its decision that Israeli delegations would be permitted to attend but “without any stand or exhibition of equipment”, which really is the point of a trade show, on Tuesday. “In accordance with the French government’s decision, Israeli companies and citizens who wish to attend will be welcomed at the show under the conditions listed above”, they said.

Per the organisers, the show features exhibits by nearly 500 companies who will meet with 22,000 visitors over November 4th to 7th.
...
This is the second time this year the French government of President Emmanuel Macron has decided to block Israeli participation in an arms fair. In May, the French government had announced Israeli exhibitors would be blocked from Eurosatory — named for the French military base where it is held — which is an arms fair focussed on land warfare.

It was said at the time the block was over Macron’s opposition to Israel fighting in Rafah. A French court later overturned the government’s order, but only after the arms fair had already started, and so too late to make much difference. The Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (Crif), which represents Jewish interests in France, reported Israeli visitors were made to sign a declaration stating they didn’t work for an Israeli arms firm in order to get into the building, which they decried as “the paper of shame”.

Quote:Amir Rockman, Israeli Consul to Costa Rica, said in an interview on Tuesday that his government has reason to believe that Iranian-linked terrorist groups are freely operating in Nicaragua, a country that recently broke ties with Israel.

Rockman spoke to Despacho 505 on Tuesday, one of the several Nicaraguan outlets now operating in exile as a result of the repressive actions of communist dictator Daniel Ortega. The interview took place within the context of Ortega’s recent order for his country to break ties with Israel, marking the third time Ortega has broken ties with Israel in roughly four decades.

The Israeli diplomat, who described the Nicaraguan regime as a “kleptocracy,” expressed that while Ortega’s decision neither surprises Israel nor changes much, Nicaragua is a territory of “political concern” for Israel due to the free reign the communist regime has given to Middle Eastern terrorist groups. Rockman pointed out that Iranian interests — particularly, its proxy terror group, the Shiite jihadist group Hezbollah — are “installed in Nicaragua.”

“The regime of the Ortega family not only gives free passage to radical Iranians, but also to other terrorist groups that act freely on Nicaraguan soil and that we do not know the purposes of their actions yet, but we are very concerned,” Rockman said.
Rockman explained that Ortega had been eroding the strength of the bilateral relationship with Israel since August 2023, when the regime removed the Israeli honorary consul post and denied direct communication and consular visits in Nicaragua. The Israeli Embassy in Costa Rica, presently led by Ambassador Michal Gur-Aryeh, was concurrent with Nicaragua. The consul pointed out that the Ortega regime did not issue an official letter notifying Israel of the rupture in diplomatic relations.

The difference between the previous rupture of ties with Israel and the most recent one, Rockman stressed, is that this time the involvement of Iran and other anti-democratic efforts in Nicaragua “has increased a lot” in recent years. He stated that he believes the rupture in relations will last longer than the previous ones because “the interests of the Iranians, Hezbollah, and other anti-democratic groups that are now installed in Nicaragua, play a bigger role than in the past years.”

“We regret that the regime of Daniel Ortega, now I can say it freely, does not represent the people of Nicaragua,” Rockman said. “In my two years in Costa Rica, where I have met many Nicaraguans, I have not had the opportunity to meet a Nicaraguan who is in favor of this dictatorship, kleptocracy.”

“We regret the decision of this regime to choose the welfare of the Iranian government, which, I do not know what interest the Nicaraguan people have with the Iranian regime, but the Ortega family has many interests with the Iranians and that is why they chose to go with this world axis of the Iranians,” he continued.
...
Rockman asserted that it is “curious” that Ortega, “supposedly a leftist, a socialist,” is allied with a fundamentalist religious regime that is on the “two extreme sides of the political map.”

“But I agree that in the end dictatorships are dictatorships and it does not matter if one preaches in the name of socialism and [the other] preaches in the name of God,” he continued, “the two regimes are the same in the way they manipulate and use their own people because in the same way that the radical Islamist Iranian regime does not represent the people of Iran, also the Ortega regime does not represent the people of Nicaragua.”

The Israeli consul referred to Ortega’s accusations that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, which the dictator used to justify the diplomatic cut, Rockman said that the use of the word genocide is a “commercial or advertising success, it is one of the biggest in recent years but it has nothing to do with reality.”

Quote:Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh on Wednesday dismissed the advanced missile defense system the United States is deploying in Israel as “psychological warfare” that would do little to enhance Israel’s defense against Iranian missiles.

Nasirzadeh was referring to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which the Pentagon confirmed on Monday is on the way to bolster Israel’s already formidable missile defenses.

The first team of U.S. military personnel arrived in Israel on Monday to begin setting up the system. The Pentagon refused to discuss “timelines” for when the battery would become fully operational.

“The deployment of the THAAD battery to Israel underscores the United States’ commitment to the defense of Israel and to defend Americans in Israel from any ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.

Nasirzadeh dismissed the THAAD deployment as an empty gesture that would do nothing to blunt Iran’s vengeance, should Israel choose to respond to Iran’s last ballistic missile attack – which was almost completely intercepted by Israel’s defenses, even without THAAD.

“We consider such measures by the enemy to be in line with a psychological war. There is no specific problem. None of the threats issued by the Zionist regime is new,” the Iranian defense minister said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran is “fully prepared for a decisive and regret-inducing response to any adventurism by the Zionist regime.”

Iranian officials and state media comically insist their missile strikes were devastating blows to the “Zionist regime” and Israel will face even harsher punishment if it dares to retaliate. In reality, nearly all of Iran’s weapons were shot down by Israel’s three-layered interception system of the long-range Arrow, medium-range David’s Sling, and short-range Iron Dome.

Quote:Israeli law enforcement authorities revealed on Tuesday that they had traced a failed suicide bombing that occurred in Tel Aviv in August to a Hamas cell based in Turkey.

A terrorist later identified as Jaafar Muna, a resident of the West Bank, self-detonated in the streets of Tel Aviv on August 18, killing himself and injuring one other person. It is not clear at press time why Muna’s explosive backpack went off in a relatively poorly populated area, but authorities noted at the time that such an explosive detonated indoors or in a crowded place could have caused substantial human damage. The target of the attack appeared to be a nearby synagogue.

Hamas and a similar regional terrorist entity, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), claimed responsibility for the failed attack, promising a wave of future suicide bombings and similar attacks within Israel. The attacks, the claimed, would continue “as long as the occupation’s massacres, the displacement of civilians and the policy of assassinations continue.”

The statement referred to Israel’s self-defense operations against Hamas in response to the jihadist groups invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the killing of an estimated 1,200 Israelis, the abduction of another 250 (of which about 97 remain in captivity), and a large number of instances of torture, gang rape, infanticide, and other atrocities. Israel declared war on Hamas on October 8 to prevent the terrorists, or other affiliated jihadist groups, from repeating the slaughter. Hamas and its sympathizers routinely describe Israel’s self-defense actions as a “genocide” and campaign against Palestinian civilians, rather than Hamas.

In addition to Hamas, PIJ, and other Iran-backed proxies in the region, Israeli Police and the Shin Bet security service pointed a finger at the government of Turkey in its statement on Tuesday linking Muna to the active Hamas wing in the country.

“The findings of this investigation clearly indicate the establishment of Hamas headquarters in Turkey and their extensive efforts abroad to incite violence and carry out bombings in Israel,” the two Israeli government agencies said in their joint statement, according to the Times of Israel.

The agencies named an allegedly senior Hamas terrorist, Abada Bilal, as Muna’s contact in Turkey and the supervisor of the operation. They also reported that they had arrested nine others in connection with the attack.

“One of the operatives traveled several times to Turkey, receiving funding and explosives training from Hamas members there,” the Times of Israel paraphrased Israeli authorities as saying.

At least one senior Hamas terrorist, “diaspora” office head Khaled Mashal, has openly encouraged the terrorist group’s supporters to plan and execute suicide attacks, or as Hamas refers to them “martyrdom operations.” Notably, Mashal made the call during a speech after the Tel Aviv attack in August, speaking from Turkey.

Quote:The government of Russia confirmed on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia is not yet an official member of the anti-American BRICS coalition, claiming that the Middle East will formalize its position one way or the other at this month’s summit.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued a statement clarifying that Riyadh does not officially belong to BRICS after another Kremlin official, aide Yuri Ushakov, named Saudi Arabia as a member a week ago, according to Reuters. The Russian government is preparing to host the annual BRICS summit in the city of Kazan beginning on October 22.

BRICS is an economic, security, and diplomatic alliance that initially consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the countries that gave it its name. The BRICS countries voted to expand membership a year ago and extended invites to six nations: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Argentina, and Ethiopia. Argentina, under the new leadership of anti-communist President Javier Milei, plainly declined the invite, while the others publicly accepted.

Saudi state television announced in January that the country had begun its membership term in BRICS, reports that went widely unquestioned as Saudi Crown Prince made an appearance at an emergency BRICS event in November to condemn Israel’s self-defense response to the atrocities committed by Iran-backed terrorist organization Hamas on October 7 of that year.

By the end of the month, however, its status became murky, as reports surfaced that Riyadh had not finalized the process to join the coalition.

“Saudi Arabia has not yet responded to the invitation to join BRICS. It is still under consideration,” an anonymous Saudi source told Reuters.

South African Ambassador to Russia Mzuvukile Geoff Maqetuka told the Russian news agency Tass in February that Saudi Arabia was “still going through its own processes” and “has not yet endorsed” membership.

Little updates have surfaced in February on whether Saudi Arabia is a formal member of BRICS or not. When Ushakov listed Saudi Arabia among BRICS members while discussing the upcoming summit, few questioned the addition.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, specified that Saudi Arabia’s status remains unclear as of Tuesday.

“The summit will take place now, we will supply additional information on who will represent Saudi Arabia, whether it will be represented at this summit, and we will draw conclusions from this,” Peskov said.

Quote:Former President Donald Trump has been hit with numerous “fact-checks” on the campaign trail that have cited FBI statistics to maintain violent crime is falling in America.

However, the bureau quietly adjusted its figures for 2022 in recent weeks — and the new numbers show that offenses actually ticked up overall.

The apparent stealth edit to the bureau’s statistics, first reported by RealClearInvestigations, shows that the raw number of violent crime incidents — including murders, assaults and rapes — rose to 1,256,671 in 2022 from 1,197,930 in 2021, an increase of 4.9%.
In October of 2023, the FBI put out a press release unveiling its national crime data for 2022, which found that “national violent crime decreased an estimated 1.7% in 2022 compared to 2021 estimates.”

Initially, the bureau projected that the violent crime rate relative to the US population had slipped by 2.1% in 2022 compared to 2021.
But the FBI’s adjustment now suggests that the rate of violent crime actually jumped by about 4.5% over the same period.

The upward revision went unmentioned in the bureau’s annual crime figures press release from September of this year, which announced that violent crime dropped by roughly 3% year-over-year in 2023.

The Crime Prevention Research Center first identified the FBI’s subtle fix, citing a spreadsheet breaking down the original data.

“I have checked the data on total violent crime from 2004 to 2022,” College of William & Mary economics professor Carl Moody, who specializes in studying crime, told RealClearInvestigations. “There were no revisions from 2004 to 2015, and from 2016 to 2020, there were small changes of less than one percentage point.

“The huge changes in 2021 and 2022, especially without an explanation, make it difficult to trust the FBI data,” Moody added.
In 2021, the bureau appears to have concluded it overcounted violent crime incidents by 55,786 and undercounted them in 2022 by 24,243.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Trump was fact-checked by ABC News moderator David Muir, who noted that the “FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country."
...

Quote:A bipartisan panel condemned the Secret Service handling of former President Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Thursday, saying the agency needs "fundamental" changes to be effective.

The panel, made up of former senior law enforcement and government officials, warned that if there are not extensive reforms at the Secret Service, then "another Butler can and will happen again."

Butler, Pennsylvania, was the site of the first assassination attempt against Trump this year. The Secret Service faced heavy criticism for negligence and sluggish reaction speed.

"The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission," the panel wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. "Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again."

The panel's review highlighted key issues both within the Secret Service and specifically regarding the July 13 assassination attempt. The agency had poor communications both internally and with local law enforcement, the panel said. Agents on the ground also had no plan to secure key buildings around the rally venue.

"The failure to secure a complex of buildings, portions of which were within approximately 130 yards of the protectee and containing numerous positions carrying high-angle line of sight risk, represents a critical security failure," the report said.

"Relying on a general understanding that ‘the locals have that area covered’ is simply not good enough and, in fact, at Butler this attitude contributed to the security failure," it continued.
...

Quote:Here’s hoping it’s nothing to blow your lid over.

A normally quiet “high threat” volcano in Washington state has been rumbling at a record rate — prompting an alert from geologists who ultimately said there’s little chance it will erupt soon.

Mount Adams — a breathtaking snow-capped peak in the state’s southern region — has been struck by seven low-intensity earthquakes since September, according to the Cascades Volcano Observatory.

The number of quakes, which ranged in magnitude from 0.9 to 2.0, is highly unusual for the 12,200-foot mountain, which is generally hit by just one every two or three years.

The flurry of rumblings prompted the United States Geological Survey to send out an alert earlier this month — and to install three new seismic stations to monitor it.

But the trembling alone is not a sign that there’s an imminent threat it will blow, said Jon Major, scientist-in-charge at the Cascades Volcano Observatory.

“Right now, there’s no cause for concern,” said Major. “If they start to pick up more earthquakes, or if earthquakes start to get larger — if they start to be shallow and more frequent — then we would probably start to take a closer look,” he told The Washington Post.

He called the series of shakes, “a little out of character for this volcano.”

Signs that a volcano is “starting to wake back up” include a large increase in earthquakes, ground deformation and a surge in gas emissions — none of which are happening, said Holly Weiss-Racine, a geologist with the Volcano Observatory.

“Right now, we’re not seeing any of those things,” Weiss-Racine told the Washington State Standard earlier this month.

She called the spike in quakes “interesting” but “nothing meaningful”

Quote:Hamas chief and Oct. 7 mastermind, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by chance in a routine ground operation in southern Gaza on Wednesday — after years of eluding Israeli forces, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed Thursday.

“Eliminated: Yahya Sinwar,” the military announced on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the death of his country’s most wanted militant as an “important milestone in the sunset of Hamas’s rule in Gaza,” the New York Times reported.

However, the prime minister stopped short of declaring total victory in the war against the terror group.

“Today, evil took a heavy blow — the mission ahead of us is still unfinished,” Netanyahu said.

Sinwar — the architect of the single deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust — was killed in Rafah in a routine raid that caught him by chance.

IDF troops were on a regular patrol, and not specifically searching for the terror chief, when they encountered several Hamas militants.

A tank unit was searching for Hamas tunnels and military sites in the southern Gazan city when they spotted moving in a building thought to be empty, former Israeli military officials briefed on the operation told the Wall Street Journal.

The tank, part of a junior team of soldiers completing a commanders course, launched a shell at the building, the officials said.

“All this event was a complete coincidence,” Amir Avivi, a former senior military commander in the Gaza division told the WSJ. “Only when they went in and saw him did they say it looked like Sinwar.”

The soldiers confirmed the body belonged to Israel’s No. 1 target by using a wooden stick to push back the man’s upper lip — revealing Sinwar’s signature front gap, which matched dental records the country had on the Hamas mastermind, The Times reported.

Although Israel wasn’t expecting Sinwar to be in that building, the IDF and American intelligence had pointed to Rafah as his likely hiding place among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled there earlier this year.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Sinwar was being tracked for months, with DNA evidence suggesting he was in the same tunnel where Hamas had killed six hostages in August, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

Dramatic footage captured his last, desperate moments alive after the IDF sent a drone into the building to survey the damage.

An injured Sinwar, who had his face covered, can be seen sitting alone in the destroyed building — with the IDF soldiers unaware that they were seeing the very man they had been hunting for since he ordered the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

When Sinwar finally notices the drone hovering just a few feet from him, he struggles to fling a piece of wood at the device in a last-ditch effort to take it out.

The soldiers then ordered a second strike on the building, killing Sinwar and two other Hamas terrorists who were traveling with him.

After recovering the body and comparing it to the DNA samples the Israeli military had of Sinwar during his time as a prisoner, officials confirmed the man killed in the strike was the terror chief.

Graphic photos also show the lifeless Hamas chief wearing a bulletproof vest, surrounded by grenades, lying in the rubble of a building with a head wound.

“We found him with a flak jacket and a gun and 40,000 shekels [$10,700],” Hagari, the IDF spokesman, told The Times.

Quote:The death of Hamas’ “Face of Evil” who masterminded the Oct. 7 massacre has left behind a power vacuum — and whoever steps in to fill the void will heavily influence the course of the ongoing war.

Yahya Sinwar, 61, was killed by chance Wednesday during a routine raid by Israeli Defense Force troops patrolling Rafah. The IDF fired a tank round into a building after encountering Hamas militants, and Sinwar’s body was later discovered in the wreckage.

“Hamas is an organization that has been plunged into chaos,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research of Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Hamas expert, told The Post, who pointed out that viable candidates to take the terror group’s reins are dwindling.

Sinwar — who led Hamas in Gaza since 2017, but took over as the greater terror group’s acting chief in July after former leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran — was instrumental in shutting down peace talks with Israel after his takeover, arguing Hamas was on the verge of eliminating the Jewish state.

With nearly 100 hostages from October 7 still held by Hamas, whoever takes Sinwar’s place as top terrorist will likely greatly influence how the conflict unfolds — and whether peace can be reached, or if the carnage will continue into the coming year.

Here’s a look at some of the top candidates:

Mohammed Sinwar

The brother of the late Hamas leader, Mohammed Sinwar is one of the terror group’s most senior commanders of its military branch and could be a “dark horse” candidate to take over the group, Schanzer said.

At 49, Sinwar has flown under the radar most of career with Hamas and made few public appearances or comments to media, according to Reuters. He remains one of Israel’s top targets and has survived numerous assassination attempts over the years.

Sinwar lacks the charismatic leadership and vision his brother had, Schanzer said, but his name could command respect from the Hamas rank and file — as bloodlines can remain respected connections for leaderships and fortunes in the Arab world.

The Sinwar brothers were very close, and both are believed to have worked together to plan the October 7 attack on Israel which left more than 1,200 dead, according to Fox News.

Experts told The Post that Hamas could opt to retaliate to Yahya’s slaying by murdering the remaining hostages — a grim possibility if Mohammed is next in line, giving the sibling’s shared ruthlessness.

Khalil Al Hayya

Hamas’ top negotiator — who was at the forefront of cease-fire talks in Cairo and Doha over the summer — is seen as a favorite to succeed Sinwar.

He was a close deputy to Sinwar, but if he were to ascend to leadership, it’s possible Hamas could take a route toward diplomacy, according to experts.

In the spring, Al Hayya voiced the possibility of giving up its arms if Israel allowed the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank – something Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has adamantly opposed.

“All the military chiefs who helped him launch the Oct. 7 attack are already dead, so only Hamas’ political chiefs are left,” retired Gen. Jack Keane, chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, previously told The Post.
...

Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday evening that Hamas terrorists who freed Israeli hostages would be allowed to live, but that those who sought to harm them would be hunted down and killed. He added that the war in Gaza would end if the hostages were freed and Hamas terrorists laid down their weapons.

Netanyahu published a video address in English, hours after Israel confirmed that its soldiers had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza in a firefight on Wednesday. He addressed his nation in Hebrew a few hours before.

The full transcript of Netanyahu’s remarks was published by Israel’s Government Press Office:

One year ago, Yahya Sinwar, the terrorist chief of Hamas, launched the October 7th massacre against Israel.

It was the bloodiest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. It was the worst attack on the Jewish state since the founding of Israel.

Sinwar’s terrorists murdered in cold blood 1,200 people. That’s elderly people, Holocaust survivors, children.

They brutally raped women. They beheaded men. They burned babies alive.

And they took 251 women, men and children hostage to the dungeons of Gaza.

Today, the mastermind of this day of sheer evil is no more.

Yahya Sinwar is dead.

He was killed in Rafah by the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.

While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it’s the beginning of the end.

To the people of Gaza, I have a simple message: This war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.

Hamas is holding 101 hostages in Gaza, who are citizens of 23 countries; citizens of Israel, but citizens of many other countries.

Israel is committed to doing everything in our power to bring all of them home.

And Israel will guarantee the safety of all those who return our hostages.

But to those who would harm our hostages, I have another message: Israel will hunt you down and bring you to justice.

I also have a message of hope to the peoples of the region: The axis of terror that was built by Iran is collapsing before our eyes.

Nasrallah is gone. His deputy Mohsen is gone. Haniyeh is gone. Deif is gone. Sinwar is gone.

The reign of terror that the Iranian regime has imposed on its own people and on the peoples of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen – this too will come to an end.

All those who seek a future of prosperity and peace in the Middle East should unite to build a better future.

Together, we can push back the forces of darkness and create a future of light and hope for all of us.

Netanyahu’s message that the war could end if Hamas released the hostages and laid down its arms has been a consistent one for months. But the explicit offer to those holding Israeli hostages — now without the direction of  Sinwar’s leadership — was new.

Published on October 15th

Quote:For more than four decades, the Iranian regime has meticulously constructed a "Ring of Fire" around Israel, employing various terror groups to extend its influence across the Middle East. However, recent military actions by Israel have begun to unravel this intricate network, indicating a potential turning point in the ongoing conflict.

Amnon Sofrin, former head of the Intelligence Directorate at Mossad, told Fox News Digital, "In central Tehran, there is a huge clock that was set up in 2015, showing how much time is left for Israel, indicating that by 2040, Israel should no longer exist. They have been preparing for this moment. Some of the Iran-backed militias conducted reconnaissance with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and claimed they would assist once the [Israel Defense Forces] IDF entered Lebanon.

"However," Sofrin added, "we are already inside Lebanon, and no pro-Iranian militia has yet provided help. Iran isn’t giving the order to its other proxies in the region to join the ground war—at least not yet."

While Tehran's other terror proxies have yet to engage directly in ground battles, they have demonstrated their "support" in other ways. Earlier this month, drones loaded with explosives were launched by pro-Iranian militias from Iraq against an Israeli military base in the Golan Heights, killing two Israeli soldiers and injuring 24.

This is not the first time these pro-Iran militia groups in Iraq have claimed responsibility for attacks on Israel. In April, an unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Iraq infiltrated Israeli territory through Jordan and exploded on a structure at an IDF base in Eilat without being intercepted. "That was a sophisticated maneuver, sending it through Jordan to Eilat," said Sofrin, "showing their high capabilities."

In Iraq, the Popular Mobilization Forces consist of approximately 25 to 30 Shiite militias that emerged in response to ISIS. These groups have served as Iran's boots on the ground, reinforcing its foothold in both Iraq and Syria.

Professor Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University, explains, "The ones benefiting from ISIS's defeat are the pro-Iranian militias. Iraqi militias number around 60,000 to 70,000 individuals, making them a formidable force. This contingent is supported by the Shiite regime in Iraq and is woven into the fabric of the state, possessing military capabilities that extend beyond being mere militias; like Hezbollah in Lebanon, they are more than just a faction."

Posted on October 16th

Quote:Israel reportedly has decided on the targets that it could strike in Iran in retaliation for the barrage of missiles Tehran fired at the country on Oct. 1, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowing that there will be "a precise and deadly response."

The Times of Israel, citing Channel 12 news, reports that the Israeli Defense Forces have presented a list of potential targets to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gallant as officials are conducting "sensitive coordination" with other countries in the Middle East.

"The targets are clear. Now it’s a matter of time," one source reportedly told Israel’s Kan news.

Another source told Kan that "the targets could also change at the 11th hour," according to The Times of Israel.

The newspaper quoted Gallant as saying Tuesday that he sees "eye-to-eye" with Netanyahu and military chief Herzi Halevi on "both the need and essence of the response" to Iran, which he described as being "precise and deadly."

Following the attack by Tehran, in which the U.S. helped defend Israel against the more than 180 missiles fired at it, Netanyahu vowed to make Iran "pay," prompting immediate speculation over what the counterattack would look like.

No casualties were reported in Israel, though one Palestinian was killed in the West Bank, and Biden has urged Netanyahu to issue nothing more than a "proportionate" counterstrike. 

However, speculation has mounted over the type of attack Israel could hit Iran with, and security analysts have begun reviewing strike options that range from hitting military sites, infrastructure important to the Iranian regime like oil refineries and ports, to even an attack on Iran’s expanding nuclear program.

Quote:Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov spoke with Fox News Digital about Ukraine's war efforts as Russia's full-scale invasion enters its fourth year in February 2025, with both sides making very little gains on the battlefield.

As the winter fighting season begins soon, the Ukrainian government needs to step up its efforts to recruit new soldiers, train them and provide the necessary military equipment to win the war.

Even as the war has no end in sight, mobilization is proceeding according to plans laid out by the Ukrainian government.

"Since the adoption of the law on mobilization this spring, we have increased mobilization indicators by 2.5 times. Twelve percent of military personnel now voluntarily join the ranks of the army thanks to a new recruitment system," Umerov told Fox News Digital in an email sent through the Ministry of Defense’s press office due to operational security concerns.

Ukraine passed a mobilization law in April to reform the military recruitment process while the war drags on and battlefield casualties mount.

The aim of the mobilization law, according to the defense minister, is to make the recruitment process more efficient and more transparent.

Umerov said that the positive numbers show that Ukrainians are ready to "defend their land with weapons in their hands."

Quote:The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case made public Friday a heavily redacted trove of documents that provide a small glimpse into the evidence prosecutors will present if the case ever goes to trial.

The nearly 1,900 pages of documents collected by special counsel Jack Smith’s team were initially filed under seal to help U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan decide what allegations can proceed to trial following the Supreme Court opinion in July that conferred broad immunity on former presidents for official acts they take in office.

The information that could be seen in the redacted version released Friday appeared to be material that for the most part had already been made public, including screenshots of Trump social media posts about the 2020 election and a transcript of the video statement he made on Jan. 6, 2021 in, which he told the rioters attacking the Capitol to go home, but added: “we love you” and “you’re very special.”

The overwhelming majority of the pages released Friday were whited-out. The redacted files are believed to include things like transcripts of grand jury testimony, which remain under wraps because of grand jury secrecy rules.

Other information visible to the public includes passages from former Vice President Mike Pence’s book, excerpts of testimony provided by several witnesses to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot and a transcript of Trump’s phone call pressuring Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to reverse his election loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.

Other documents include fundraising emails from Trump’s 2020 campaign and Pence’s letter telling Congress on Jan. 6 that he could not claim “unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”

The filing was submitted as a series of appendices to a 165-page brief unsealed this month in which prosecutors disclosed new evidence against Trump to support their argument that the former president is not entitled to immunity from prosecution.

Trump’s lawyers objected to the unsealing of the filing so close to next month’s presidential election, but Chutkan on Thursday rejected their bid to postpone the material from becoming public until after the election. She said it would be inappropriate to take the political calendar into account.

Quote:Freight is piling up at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as freight rail delays hit a two-year high, owing to record levels of imports on the West Coast, as strikes and the Houthi threat have diverted East Coast shipping.

According to Seatrade Maritime News, traffic at the Port of Long Beach reached a record high in the third quarter of 2024: “The port credited the record volumes to holiday related goods demand as well as shippers diverting cargo to West Coast ports ahead of industrial action over a new labour contract at East Coast ports. The strike by dockworkers at East Coast only lasted three days from 1 October until tentative agreement was reached on wages.”

While the port has been running efficiently, however, the freight rail system has not. NBC News reported Friday:

Record imports over the last several months at West Coast ports, driven by the recent East Coast and Gulf Coast strike diversions and ongoing Red Sea issues, are leading to congestion on the rails, as holiday goods and everyday items pile up.

Almost half of the containers bound by freight rail out of the Port of Los Angeles are waiting nine-plus days to get out of the port and onto the rail.

Before the August and September container surges, the average rail dwell time, or how long a container sits at port, for the San Pedro Basin, which includes the Port of LA and Long Beach, was four days.

The delays could affect retail businesses and other industries, leading to supply chain problems.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg disappeared during the cargo crisis of 2021; he was on unannounced paternity leave.

Quote:President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is providing a so-called “temporary” amnesty to about 11,000 Lebanese nationals living in the United States, ensuring they are not deported and can hold American jobs.

On Thursday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Lebanese nationals in the U.S. who would otherwise be eligible for deportation.

Lebanese nationals with TPS will be able to remain in the U.S. and hold American jobs through January 2026 as long as they claim that they were in the country as of Oct. 16 of this year.

In addition, Mayorkas has announced so-called “Special Student Relief” for Lebanese nationals who are in the U.S. on F-1 student visas, which will allow them to “request employment authorization, work an increased number of hours while school is in session, and reduce their course load while continuing to maintain F-1 status through the Deferred Enforced Departure designation period.”

About 1,740 Lebanese nationals on F-1 student visas are expected to secure Special Student Relief under the designation.

TPS was first created under the Immigration Act of 1990 and prevents federal immigration officials from deporting people from countries that are designated as experiencing famine, war, or natural disasters.

Since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program, as the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden-Harris administrations have continuously renewed the program for a variety of countries.

Today, nearly 900,000 foreign nationals in the U.S. are shielded from deportation after having secured TPS. The vast majority are from Venezuela, Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, and Ukraine.

Quote:President Joe Biden told reporters upon the arrival of Air Force One in Germany on Friday that he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on the killing of Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar.

Biden added that it was time for the war in Gaza to end, and to achieve a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release.

He said (via White House transcript):

I called Bibi Netanyahu to congratulate him on getting Sinwar. He has a lot of blood on his hands — American blood, Israeli blood, and others.

And I told him that we were really pleased with his actions and, further, that now is the time to move on — move on, move towards a ceasefire in Gaza, make sure that we move in a direction that we’re going to be in a position to make things better for the whole world.

It’s time for this war to end and bring these hostages home. And so, that’s what we’re ready to do. That’s what we’re going to be — and I’m sending Tony Blinken to Israel — I guess he’s going in five days — four days — four or five days. Anyway, he’s going. And I talked with Bibi about that.

Though Biden said he was “pleased,” the only reason Israel was able to kill Sinwar was because Netanyahu ignored every demand made by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris about Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

Quote:“The United States, Israel, and the entire world are better off as a result” of Israel killing the leader of Hamas on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris read from a statement.

The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar suggests the Hamas/Israel war might come to an end in the coming days. The Biden-Harris administration will likely try to take credit for any potential peace upon hostage releases.

Harris said last March, however, that Israel going into Rafah, Gaza, would be a “huge mistake.”
...
The IDF killed Sinwar in Rafah on Thursday.

“The Biden-Harris Administration scolded Israel for going into Rafah. Today in Rafah, Israel eliminated the leader of Hamas who orchestrated the October 7 attacks,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said in a statement. “America must fully back Israel’s mission to bring the hostages home and destroy Hamas.”

“Justice has been served, and the United States, Israel, and the entire world are better off as a result,” Harris said:
...

Quote:The Pentagon said on Thursday that U.S. forces played no role in the Israeli ground operation in Rafah that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, architect of the October 7 atrocities.

“This was an Israeli operation. There were no U.S. forces directly involved,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said.

Ryder noted the United States has “helped contribute information and intelligence as it relates to hostage recovery and the tracking and locating of Hamas leaders who have been responsible for holding hostages,” but he indicated that was not the case with the operation that killed Sinwar.

“This was an Israeli operation. And I would refer you to them to talk about the details of how the operation went down,” he told reporters.

Ryder’s statement directly contradicted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s attempts to take partial credit for the elimination of Sinwar on Thursday.

Ryder took pains to cushion that blow by talking about how the United States has assisted Israeli counter-terrorism operations in the past, but he was clearly saying no American intelligence assets were involved in locating Sinwar. The Hamas leader was effectively a target of opportunity, killed after his entourage randomly encountered an Israeli patrol.

Biden’s statement on Sinwar’s death strongly implied U.S. forces helped to hunt him down on orders from the Biden White House:

Shortly after the October 7 massacres, I directed Special Operations personnel and our intelligence professionals to work side-by-side with their Israeli counterparts to help locate and track Sinwar and other Hamas leaders hiding in Gaza.

With our intelligence help, the IDF relentlessly pursued Hamas’s leaders, flushing them out of their hiding places and forcing them onto the run.  There has rarely been a military campaign like this, with Hamas leaders living and moving through hundreds of miles of tunnels, organized in multiple stories underground, determined to protect themselves with no care for the civilians suffering above ground.  Today, however, proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.

Quote:Mitzi Gaynor, an actress known for South Pacific and her film roles alongside Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, has died. She was 93.

Her management team shared the news in a statement posted to social media Thursday morning.

The duo said Gaynor died of “natural causes.”

“For eight decades she entertained audiences in films, on television and on the stage,” the post reads. “She truly enjoyed every moment of her professional career and the great privilege of being an entertainer.”

In South Pacific, Gaynor portrayed U.S. Navy nurse Nellie Forbush. She became well-known for her performance of the song “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair.”

Her other film credits included Anything Goes (1956) with Bing Crosby, Les Girls (1957) and The Joker is Wild (1957) with Frank Sinatra.

She starred alongside Zsa Zsa Gabor and Marilyn Monroe in We’re Not Married! (1952), and reunited with Monroe in There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954).

Gaynor also headlined several TV specials for CBS.

Quote:Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted on Wednesday that his government has no “hard evidence” to prove Indian agents were behind the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June 2023.

Trudeau made his comments before the Canadian Foreign Interference Commission, which was established in 2023 amid a wave of allegations that foreign governments such as China and Russia were interfering in Canadian politics.

In September 2023, Prime Minister Trudeau publicly accused the Indian government of masterminding the assassination of Nijjar, a leading figure in the Khalistan movement of Sikh separatists.

India, which regards the Khalistan movement as a terrorist organization, dismissed Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and said he offered no evidence to back them up. A major diplomatic feud erupted between India and Canada over the ensuing year. On Monday, each country expelled six of the others’ diplomats.

Trudeau has resisted calls to reveal his evidence of India’s involvement to the public. He told the Foreign Interference Commission on Wednesday that he does not have any “hard evidence,” only “intelligence” that suggests the order to kill Nijjar came from New Delhi.

“Over the course of summer, I was apprised by intelligence services that the [Indian] government was involved in the killing of Nijjar. There was not an obvious immediate international nexus,” he said.

Trudeau said that by August of 2023, “intelligence from Canada and the Five Eyes made it clear that India was involved.” The Five Eyes intelligence partnership includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Trudeau said he was convinced that “agents from India were involved” in Nijjar’s murder, and he duly expressed those concerns to the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“India undermined our government and governance,” he charged. “These were clear indications that India had violated our sovereignty.”

Quote:A group of gunmen fired at least a dozen shots at the offices of one of the main newspapers in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The attack comes as Sinaloa is ground zero for a fierce turf war between rival cartel factions. Mexico’s government has largely avoided interfering despite deploying hundreds of soldiers to the region.

The attack took place on Thursday night in downtown Culiacan, Sinaloa, outside the offices of El Debate newspaper, where a group of gunmen in two vehicles pulled up. According to El Debate’s reporting, one gunman carrying a rifle got down from the convoy, walked up to the front of El Debate, and began shooting indiscriminately at the building.

The bullets struck the front of the building and three vehicles that had been parked outside. After the attack, the gunman walked back to his vehicle, and the convoy drove off.

Numerous international press freedom groups continue to label Mexico as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. As Breitbart Texas reported, these press freedom groups highlight the impunity with which cartels and government officials can target, attack, kidnap, and kill news workers.

The violence comes at a time when the entire state continues to feel the effects of a turf war between the Chapitos and Mayos factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. As the violence has begun to spread to other parts of the country, El Debate has been one of the news outlets that continues to report on it.

As Breitbart Texas has reported, the turf war was a direct result of the July 25 capture of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada at the hands of his Godson Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Under the guise of having a meeting with top politicians, Guzman lured El Mayo to a ranch where he and his gunmen captured him, tied him up, placed him in an airplane, and flew him to the waiting hands of U.S. agents in Texas. Since then, Guzman’s relatives from the faction Chapitos have fought against Zambada’s loyalists.

Quote:Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Russia has “deep concerns” about the “consequences” for the Middle East as a result of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

“The main thing for us is the consequences for the peaceful population that we see,” Peskov told reporters. “We have serious concerns about this.”

“The humanitarian disaster that is observed in both Gaza and Lebanon is the subject of our serious concern,” he added.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) members killed Sinwar in a chance encounter in the Gaza city of Rafah on Wednesday. The Hamas leader planned and executed the jihadist group’s unprecedented October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, which left over 1,200 dead and hundreds taken hostage.

Sinwar’s death marks the end of a year-long pursuit of the Hamas leader who, the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA) informed, remained hidden among the civilian population of Gaza. The IDF suspected that Israeli forces inadvertently killed Sinwar after a tank fired at a building where three terrorists had been spotted – finding, much to their surprise, Sinwar’s body inside the structure.

Drone footage released by the IDF on Thursday revealed Sinwar’s final moments. The footage shows Sinwar throwing an object at the drone that military reports described as a “wooden stick.” Sinwar failed to hit the drone with the thrown object.

In addition to Peskov’s comments, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, answering questions from reporters, said that while Sinwar’s death was “jarring,” he does not consider it to be a “turning point” that prompts a new escalation wave in the Middle East.

“This is not the first time such dramatic events have happened. There is always someone waiting in the wings. Such a person has already been found. As far as I understand, it is Khaled Mashal, who once served as Head of the Hamas political bureau. Now, he will do so again,” Bogdanov said.

Vladimir Fitin, adviser to the director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, told Tass on Friday that the death of the Hamas leader may push the group’s remaining officers to start negotiations with the Israeli government.

Quote:Around 100 British left-wing activists are being funded to campaign for Kamala Harris in swing states, leading to allegations of election interference and even American electoral law being broken.

A social media post by the Director of Operations of the UK’s governing party, Labour, recruiting “Labour Party staff” for campaigning in North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia has caused concern. The message from Labour’s Sofia Patel promised paid-for accommodation for those taking up the offer. She wrote, in the now-deleted post:

I have nearly 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) going to the US in the next few weeks heading to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. I have 10 spots available for anyone available to head to the battleground state of North Carolina – we will sort your housing. Email me on labourforkamala@gmail.com if you’re interested. Thanks!

NBC15 News notes Patel has previously campaigned in the U.S. for the Hillary Clinton 2016 effort.

Some have expressed concern the group may have been breaking U.S. law, including Elon Musk and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recommended UK politicians would probably be better off back in Britain, fixing the country’s many problems rather than trying to interfere abroad. She stated: “You are breaking [Federal Election Commission] laws. Foreign nationals are not allowed to be involved in anyway in U.S. elections. Please go back to the UK and fix your own mass immigration problems that are ruining your country.”
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As it is, under U.S. Federal Election Commission rules foreign nationals are allowed to volunteer on political campaigns but can’t be paid a salary, donate money, spend money on the campaign’s behalf, or take leadership (“decision-making”) roles. So whether these laws have been obeyed will have to be determined by the FEC, but influential Westminster gossip blog Guido Fawkes states its understanding that the trips to America for Labour staffers being paid for by the Democrat Party and they are campaigning “in their own time”, which would be legal.

Quote:Genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping visited the coastal province of Fujian, state media reported Wednesday, and stopped on a local island facing Taiwan just days after ordering intimidating war games in the wars surrounding the island nation.

Communist China has escalated its antagonistic rhetoric against Taiwan, which it falsely claims as a renegade province, since October 10, Taiwan’s National Day. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivered a speech to mark the occasion in which he suggested his country could in the future collaborate on issues such as climate change with Beijing. He also, however, affirmed his nation’s sovereignty and noted that Taiwan, formally the Republic of China, was founded before the Communist People’s Republic of China, outraging Beijing.

Following the speech, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held massive war games near Taiwan, which it regularly coordinates to intimidate Taiwan and as a show of force to third party nations to deter support for Taipei. Xi’s visit to Fujian occurred some days later and state media did not overly highlight the potential connection to Taiwan.

According to the government’s Xinhua News Agency, Xi traveled to Fujian to discuss improving China’s disastrous economy and developing the province’s rural countryside.

“Fujian, a forerunner in the country’s reform and opening up drive, is an economic powerhouse with a robust private economy,” Xinhua claimed. “Facing Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait, the province is building itself into a demonstration zone for cross-Strait integrated development.”

Xi reportedly did discuss attempting to eradicate Taiwanese identity from Fujian, however, describing it as “enhancing the sense of the Chinese national and cultural identity among Taiwan compatriots.” For part of his visit, the state-run Global Times propaganda newspaper reported, Xi “learned about local efforts in strengthening the protection of cultural heritage and promoting cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Straits.”

The vast majority, 67 percent, of Taiwanese nationals identify as primarily Taiwanese; that number goes up to 83 percent among Taiwanese aged 18 to 34, according to a Pew Research Center poll published in January. Only three percent of respondents said they felt primarily. Chinese.

Furthermore, a survey published last week by Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research found that over half, 64 percent, of Taiwanese considered China a “serious threat” and nearly 68 percent said they would personally fight to defend Taiwan from China.

Quote:Britain’s foreign secretary has called engagement with China “pragmatic and necessary” as he makes he makes the first visit by a Cabinet minister since the Labor government took control in July.

David Lammy met Friday with Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang and was to hold talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi later the same day.

His two-day trip is an attempt to reset ties with Beijing after relations turned frosty in recent years over spying allegations, China´s support for Russia in the Ukraine war and a crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony now part of China.

“From stopping Russia´s illegal invasion of Ukraine, to supporting a global green transition, we must speak often and candidly across both areas of contention as well as areas for cooperation in the U.K.´s national interest,” Lammy was quoted as saying in a Foreign Office news release.

The release said that Lammy would urge China to stop its political and economic support of the Russian war effort.

The U.S. sanctioned two Chinese companies on Thursday for allegedly helping Russia build long-range attack drones used in the war in Ukraine. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the allegations were false.

Lammy will also visit Shanghai, where he will meet with British business leaders, the Foreign Office release said. China including Hong Kong is the U.K.´s fourth largest trading partner.

Human rights groups demanded that Lammy press the Chinese government over its crackdowns on dissent in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.

The spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that securing the release of British citizen Jimmy Lai is a priority. The Hong Kong media publisher has been in custoday since December 2020 and will testify next month in his defense at a landmark national security trial.

Quote:Taliban terror leaders announced on Thursday that they have opened an investigation into multiple reports of Iranian border guards opening fire on a crowd of hundreds of Afghans who had entered the country illegally.

The Iranian government has denied that its guards had committed any such mass killing, but insisted in a statement on the situation that Tehran would resolutely act against the large influx of Afghan migrants into the border that began when the Taliban regained control of the country from the former U.S.-backed government in 2021.

Iran and the Taliban’s Afghanistan maintain formal diplomatic ties, a rarity for the rogue Islamist regime in Kabul. The relationship is not without significant tension over their mutual border, however, typically as a result of disputes over access to water. The Helmand River straddles their border and both sides often complain that the other is hoarding the limited water supply.

Following the fall of the Kabul government in 2021, the dramatic influx of illegal Afghan migrants into Iran also became a significant point of content. The Taliban is a repressive, fundamentalist terrorist entity that has, among other actions, made it illegal for women to show their faces or use their voices in public and severely punishes men who do not abide by their strict facial hair standards. Its return to power prompted thousands to scramble for a way out of the impoverished, war-torn country, an exodus that continues three years later.

Reports initially surfaced on Wednesday in Afghan media and among the Iranian human rights community that Iranian border patrol had identified a group of between 200 and 300 Afghans in Sistan and Baluchestan province, trying to flee Afghanistan. According to the Iranian human rights group Haalvsh, border patrol intercepted the group and opened fire on the men, women, and children among them. Graphic videos allegedly showing the aftermath of the shooting began surfacing on social media and Afghan outlets estimated that as many as 200 civilians had been killed in the affair.

Amu TV, an independent Afghan outlet, claimed to find a family of the survivors of the massacre, who confirmed that a “large group” of Afghans had left western Afghanistan, in the direction of Iran a week ago. The family shared photos of their relatives and said they had no updates on their loved ones’ journey.

Several international organizations have condemned the reported attack and demanded more respect on the part of the Iranian regime for would-be refugees. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has struggled to operate under the Taliban, issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” about reports of a massacre and demanding the Iranian government clarify the situation.

Amnesty International issued a statement recalling that the reports followed “two years of documented illegal use of force by Iran against Afghans seeking refuge after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.”

Quote:The Iran-backed terrorist Hamas organization confirmed on Friday the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza, celebrating the “fallen martyr” and vowing not to release the dozens of Israeli hostages the group has kept for over a year.

Sinwar, once the head of Hamas in Gaza, took over the entire organization in August after the death of “political” chief Ismail Haniyeh in a bombing in Tehran. He is widely believed to have planned and orchestrated the massacre of 1,200 people and widespread atrocities committed against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, and stood out even among the genocidal jihadists of Hamas for pressuring the group to embrace more gruesome violence against Israelis and Jews generally. Reports out of Hamas in the past month indicated that Sinwar’s major policy change upon taking control of Hamas was to call for more suicide bombings against Israel.

Khalil Hayya, who took over for Sinwar as the Hamas Gaza chief, confirmed the latter’s death on Friday, celebrating Sinwar as a “martyr” and insisting that Hamas would not free the hostages taken on October 7, approximately 100 people.

“[Sinwar] has lived his whole life as a holy fighter. Since his early days, he was engaged in his struggle as a resistant fighter,” Hayya claimed, according to a translation by the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera. “He stood defiant behind Israeli bars and after his release in a swapped deal, he continued with his struggle and his dedication to the cause.”

Hayya said that Sinwar’s absence would “strengthen” Hamas and vowed to not free the hostages.

“The occupation [Israeli] prisoners will not return unless the aggression on Gaza stops, there is a complete withdrawal from [Gaza], and our prisoners are released from the prisons,” Hayya said. “Hamas will continue until the establishment of the Palestinian state on all Palestinian soil with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Hamas advocates for the complete destruction of the state of Israel and elimination of its population – an explicitly genocidal goal – and the replacement of Israel with an Islamist state of “Palestine.”

PressTV, an Iranian state propaganda outlet, quoted another alleged “senior Hamas official,” Basem Naim, issuing similarly defiant remarks on Friday.

“Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated,” Naim claimed. “We believe that our destiny is one of two good things, either victory or martyrdom.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed they had eliminated Sinwar in Gaza on Thursday. IDF ground forces reportedly identified suspicious Hamas activity in the southern city of Rafah and engaged terrorists on the move. The engagement resulted in the elimination of the terrorists, a contingent that included Sinwar and his bodyguards. Sinwar himself was reportedly killed by a shell from an Israeli tank. The operation was not targeting Sinwar personally, and the Israeli soldiers did not initially know who they were engaging.

Quote:A passport belonging to a U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) teacher was found on the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli ground forces in the Gaza city of Rafah on Thursday.
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According to Nurit Yohanan, Palestinian affairs correspondent for Israeli public radio’s KAN News, the passport carried by Sinwar belongs to a UNRWA teacher and Rafah native named Hani Zourob who left for Egypt in April.
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It was not immediately clear if the passport carried by Sinwar was a copy or a fake document.

Early reports in the chaotic moments after Sinwar’s death suggested the passport was carried by one of his bodyguards, and the bodyguard actually was Hani Zourob.

Yohana said she contacted Zourob and determined he is alive and well in Egypt. Sinwar’s bodyguards are neither alive nor well.

UNRWA is the United Nations relief and development agency for Palestinians. The organization has been criticized for employing Palestinian terrorists, including members of Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have discovered Hamas operatives using UNRWA facilities to store munitions and plan their attacks. Hamas weapons depots have been found beneath UNRWA hospitals and schools.

A major scandal erupted in January when Israel accused at least a dozen UNRWA employees of actually participating in the October 7 atrocities, which saw 1,200 Israeli civilians murdered as well as hundreds raped, kidnapped, or otherwise brutalized. Israel provided hard evidence for its accusations, including audio recordings of UNRWA employees gloating about kidnapping and raping Israeli women.

The United States, and several other countries, halted funding for UNRWA after these allegations.

The U.N. conducted an investigation and found that nine UNRWA employees “may have” been involved in the October 7 attack. All of those employees were reportedly fired, a remedy that did not come close to satisfying the Israeli government.

Quote:One of the two bodyguards found dead alongside Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday was an employee of the United Nations, according to a report Thursday.

Update: A passport found on Sinwar’s body was confirmed to have been that of a United Nations employee. According to the Times of Israel, Sinwar appeared to have been carrying the fake passport in an attempt to flee Gaza.)

As Breitbart News reported, Sinwar’s death was confirmed Thursday after infantry and armored troops engaged three terrorists hiding in a building in southern Gaza, in Rafah, near the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border.

He was found with two other terrorists. One of them was a senior commander of Hamas terrorists in the Khan Yunis area. The other, according to Israeli news website Ynet, was a teacher employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Ynet reported:

IDF forces discovered large amounts of Israeli cash and identifying documents on the terrorists’ bodies. Due to the presence of explosives and grenades, drones were initially used to examine the bodies.

One of the terrorists bore a strong resemblance to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, leading troops to believe they may have killed him unintentionally, without prior intelligence. The exact location of the raid remains undisclosed for security reasons.
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Further evidence suggesting Sinwar’s death included the presence of a senior Hamas commander known to frequently accompany him. Reports from Gaza indicated the other two terrorists killed were Sinwar’s bodyguards, one of whom worked as a teacher for UNRWA and the other a high-ranking official in Hamas’ National Security Office.

UNRWA has been implicated in ideological support for terror, and several of its employees participated in the October 7 terror attacks. President Donald Trump canceled U.S. funding for UNRWA, but President Joe Biden restored it, before suspending it in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urged Israel to continue working with UNRWA in the Gaza Strip in a letter threatening an arms embargo if Israel did not comply within 30 days with that demand, among others, dictated by the Biden-Harris administration.

Quote:Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the “spirit of resistance” in Gaza will only be “strengthened” by the death of Hamas leader and October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, who was killed on Thursday by Israeli ground forces as he attempted to flee into Egypt.

The Iranian mission wrote a post on social media platform X that sought to contrast Sinwar’s end with the supposedly more humiliating demise of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein:

When U.S. forces dragged a disheveled Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him despite being armed. Those who regarded Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed.

However, when Muslims look up to Martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield—in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy—the spirit of resistance will be strengthened. He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forward his path toward the liberation of Palestine.

As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.

Iran’s enthusiasm for fighting to the last dead Palestinian may not be enough to maintain the morale of Tehran’s terrorist proxies, who have suffered an astonishing string of leadership losses over the past few months.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has killed hundreds of Hamas leaders and fighters in Gaza during a year of warfare. The political chief of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed by a bomb in July while hiding in Tehran.

When Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah entered the battle, it promptly lost many of its leaders to exploding pagers and portable radios. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, once thought untouchable, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on his bunker in late September.

Quote:Eager to demonstrate that it is capable of fighting after losing many of its top leaders, the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah on Friday announced it will begin “the transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy.”

The Hezbollah statement said the decision to enter this nebulous new phase was made “based on the directives of the Resistance Command.”

The terrorists promised that their new strategy “will be reflected in the developments and events of the coming days.”

Hezbollah also claimed it has killed ten Israeli soldiers and wounded 150 others in skirmishes over the past few days, and destroyed nine of Israel’s Merkava tanks and four of its militarized bulldozers.

Much of this destruction was purportedly inflicted with drones and precision-guided missiles, which are new additions to the Hezbollah armory. On the defensive side, the “Hezbollah Operations Room” claimed its forces were able to shoot down two Israeli Hermes 450 spy drones.

Hezbollah’s patrons in Iran stated, through their mission to the United Nations, that “the spirit of resistance will be strengthened” despite Israel’s successful operations against terrorist leadership.

Some of the militaristic language in Hezbollah’s statement was merely grandiose theater, intended to make both supporters and opponents believe the group remains well-organized and combat-effective. However, Reuters reported last week that Hezbollah did manage to cobble together a new “operations room” within 72 hours of the old one getting blown to bits along with group leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27.

The longtime Hezbollah dictator died along with several of his top commanders and some Iranian military officers when an Israeli airstrike took out his bunker. A week before that, hundreds of Hezbollah leaders were killed or disabled when their pagers and portable radios exploded.

The first statement from the new “operations room of the Islamic Resistance” claimed its fighters were “watching and listening” to Israeli forces, and were prepared to strike when the enemy least expected it.

Quote:Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited southern Lebanon to review Israel’s progress there, revealing that Israeli soldiers had killed an estimated 1,500 Hezbollah terrorists there, the IDF said Friday.

In a statement, the IDF said:

The Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, conducted a field tour this week with soldiers of the Golani Brigade and the 188th Brigade operating in southern Lebanon, and held a situational assessment with the Commanding Officer of the Northern Command, the Commanding Officer of the Northern Corps, the Commanding Officer of the 36th Division, and other commanders.
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Attached are the full remarks of the Chief of the General Staff: “We are very determined to strike Hezbollah as hard as possible, and look, we’ve taken out their entire senior command level. You are taking out their entire local command level here, the command is also working on what’s in between, and this whole thing is shrinking, shrinking. There are very significant damages here, a whole chain of command is being wiped out. Hezbollah is hiding casualties, they are hiding dead commanders. We estimate that there are around 1,500 eliminated Hezbollah operatives, and we are making reserved estimates, I assume there are more, and we don’t know, from many strikes. These are very important achievements. The fact that they are surrendering says something about the moral situation, it says something about the level of combat, about their self-confidence, it says something about the quality you brought with you. They understand that this is it, there’s nothing left to do – back to the wall, and that’s the next stage. And that’s why I think the combat is very, very correct, it also sends the right message. I’ll tell you something broader, I think even Iran doesn’t understand what’s happening to Hezbollah here. This is its main arm that it built up, and this is a very important thing now. And we are making sure that every day there is a very tough surprise for Hezbollah, and you will bring your surprises – surprises are both about bringing achievements and preventing the enemy’s achievements.”

Separately, the IDF announced Friday that it had killed Mahmoud Hamdan (Tom), commander of Hamas’ Tel al-Sultan Battalion who “was responsible for guarding Yahya Sinwar and overseeing the six hostages who were murdered in the area.” He was previously — and erroneously — thought dead, and was killed in Gaza “by the IDF during an encounter with IDF troops, approximately 200 meters from the spot where Sinwar was eliminated.”

Quote:Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers killed two Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated into the country on Friday across the eastern border, wearing Jordanian military uniforms. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the exchange.

The Jerusalem Post reported:

An IDF soldier and reservist were lightly and moderately wounded following an exchange of fire with terrorists who crossed into Israel from Jordan near Neot Kikar in the Dead Sea area, the military said on Friday.
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The military said IDF troops killed two terrorists who infiltrated Israeli territory near the Jordanian border while ground and aerial searches were underway for an additional terrorist who had probably fled the scene.

The Times of Israel added (original emphasis):

An observation soldier saw the terrorists cutting the fence with a wirecutter and declared a “Parash Turki,” a codeword meaning infiltration through the fence.
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The terrorists opened fire with Glock pistols as the IDF force charged at them. They hit one soldier in the leg and one in the buttocks.

One terrorist was killed about 30 yards from the jeep, the other managed to make it to the jeep and died on its hood.

Social media accounts of the incident indicated that the terrorists had been wearing Jordanian military uniforms.