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MIDDLE EAST SPECIAL EDITION
Hezbollah's Leader Nasrallah DEAD!
Nasrallah's Demise
Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared Saturday, and Hezbollah confirmed, that terrorist mass murderer Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in an airstrike Friday evening in his headquarters deep under civilian buildings in Beirut.
As Breitbart News reported, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the airstrike from his hotel room in New York City, then addressed the United Nations General Assembly while the mission was being carried out.
Netanyahu left a press conference, apparently after being informed of the attack, in which bunker-busting bombs exploded underneath buildings in southern Beirut. Aid the devastation, Nasrallah’s death could not be confirmed.
The IDF said, tentatively, that it believe Nasrallah had been killed, together with other leaders of Hezbollah. But Iranian news sources pushed misinformation to western media outlets, saying Nasrallah was alive, safe, and well.
The Associated Press (AP) described Nasrallah as a “pragmatist,” downplaying his culpability in mass murder in Syria and elsewhere. It obscured his commitment to destroying Israel and his hatred toward America and the west.
Nasrallah, 64, rose to lead the Iranian-backed terror group as it carried out an insurgency against Israeli forces that had occupied southern Lebanon to prevent terrorists from firing rockets at communities in northern Israel. When Israel withdrew in 2000, he became a hero in the Arab and Muslim worlds. His stature increased after 2006, when Hezbollah started the Second Lebanon War and fought Israel to a draw after the international community intervened.
But Nasrallah soon became a hated figure as well, after Hezbollah joined the Syrian civil war that erupted in the Arab Spring of 2011. Hezbollah participated in atrocities against Sunni Muslims and others, as Iran propped up dictator Bashar al-Assad. Many Lebanese people, outside of Hezbollah’s narrow Shiite constituency, resented Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon, which allowed Iran to control the country and to turn it into a base for future attacks against Israel.
In its obituary for Nasrallah, the AP also completely omitted Hezbollah’s role in terror against the U.S., notably its role in the bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983, which killed 241 servicemen. It was also involved in terror and criminal enterprises worldwide, with tentacles reaching as far as Latin America and Africa, where its operatives raised and laundered money through the “blood diamonds” wars of the 1990s that horrified the world.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Saturday that Nasrallah had hidden under women and children, and declared that Israel would continue its fight against Hezbollah until it could no longer threaten northern Israel.
The Biden administration was reportedly angry about the attack. As Breitbart News noted, Israel only informed the U.S. about the attack on Nasrallah while it was already in progress, probably because Israel did not trust the Biden administration to keep its plans secret. The Biden administration was already angry at Israel’s apparent rejection of a proposed 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, believing that Netanyahu had strung the White House along to buy time.
There are several questions now: whether Israel will launch a ground invasion to destroy the rest of a shattered Hezbollah; whether Iran will intervene in Lebanon to save its terrorist proxy; and whether the people of Lebanon, plagued for so many decades by war, will be able to enjoy peace and sovereignty.
One thing is certain: one of the worst terrorists and mass murderers in the world is dead, thanks to a war he launched, unprovoked, against civilians.
Update: Following publication of this article, President Joe Biden issued a statement on the White House website in which he praised the killing of Nasrallah but reiterated his desire for a ceasefire, rather than eliminating Hezbollah:
Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.
The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel.
The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my Secretary of Defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.
Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means. In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the UN Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.
Before & During the Strike
Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved Friday’s airstrike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, from his hotel room in New York City prior to his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
The Prime Minister’s Office released a photograph that it said showed Netanyahu approving the massive airstrike.
The massive attack targeted Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut.
It was not clear at the time of the photo’s release whether Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had survived the attack.
Netanyahu apparently delivered his address knowing that the attack was under way. He cut short a press conference after the speech when a military aide whispered in his ear.
The prime minister’s office said that Netanyahu would return to Israel Friday, returning home on Saturday, taking the unusual step of traveling on the Jewish Sabbath for reasons of pressing national security.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it is on high alert, ready for any action, defensive or offensive. There had been no response from Hezbollah or any other Iranian proxies as of 8:30 p.m. in Israel.
The Reactions
Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his nation on Saturday night, telling them that the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was a victory for Israel and a warning to Iran.
Netanyahu, speaking in Hebrew, said that Nasrallah was not just “a” terrorist, but “the” terrorist, responsible for the deaths not just of Israelis but also of many American and French citizens, among others.
He said that the successful airstrike on Friday evening was a warning to Iran — the “regime of the ayatollah” — and repeated a warning he delivered in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
“Whoever strikes us, we will strike them. … And today you know how true that is.”
Netanyahu added that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar would be more amenable to a hostage deal, now that he “sees that Nasrallah is not coming to save him.”
To those in the Middle East and the world terrorized by Iran and Hezbollah, Netanyahu said, the message of Friday’s attack was: “Israel stands with you.”
He noted that the attack was broadly a message to Israel’s allies, without mentioning the United States. The Biden administration had been pushing for a ceasefire before that attack and reiterated that goal even while welcoming Nasrallah’s elimination.
Netanyahu recounted the year since the October 7 terror attack, when Israel’s enemies hoped that it was “on the path to destruction.”
He declared: “They understand how their hopes have been dashed.”
Netanyahu concluded: “We are determined to continue striking at our enemies, to return our residents [to their homes], and to release all of the hostages, whom we do not forget about for a moment.”
And what does the "leader" of the free world say?
Quote:President Joe Biden issued a statement on Saturday welcoming the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, but repeating his call for ceasefire deals in Gaza and Lebanon, despite Israel’s advance toward victory.
The full text of Biden’s statement is as follows:
Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.
The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel.
The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my Secretary of Defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.
Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means. In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the UN Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.
The Times of Israel reported that the Biden administration was angry about the airstrike because Israel did not inform it until the operation was in progress, and appeared to have strung the White House along about a ceasefire.
Israel had reason to worry that the White House might not keep the operation secret. The head of intelligence at Biden’s National Security Council, Maher Bitar, is a former radical pro-Palestinian activist. Moreover, President Barack Obama was thought to have leaked information to the media about a potential Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to warn the Iranians and prevent the Israelis from attacking.
The Biden administration has tried, throughout the war that erupted with the Hamas terror attack last October 7, to prevent Israel from destroying terrorist organizations. Vice President Kamala Harris warned Israel against entering Rafah to destroy Hamas.
Quote:On Saturday’s “CNN This Morning,” IDF Spokesman Maj. Doron Spielman responded to frustration from the White House with Israel over ceasefires by stating that “for an entire year, Hezbollah has been firing rockets, over 9,000 rockets, missiles, and killer drones and no one talked about a ceasefire. Now that Israel’s actually taking the assertion to try to protect its civilians, we’re calling for a ceasefire.” And stated that “the world, instead of demanding [that Israel have] a ceasefire, should be demanding that Hezbollah pull out.”
Co-host Jim Sciutto asked, “[A]mong U.S. officials, there are fears now of a wider conflict in the Middle East, which, as you know, the U.S. has been seeking to avoid, and that was part of the motivation behind ceasefire talks as it relates to Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel, earlier ceasefire talks as it related to Gaza. Did Israel carry out this attack over U.S. objections?”
Spielman responded, “Israel carried out this attack because, as we’ve said from the beginning, Hezbollah is what stands in the way of Israeli civilians moving north and peace in the entire northern part of the country. Israel clearly felt that Nasrallah is a major target. … We work very closely with the United States. They’re our greatest ally, but Israel, at the end of the day, has independence to try to fulfill its military objectives in order to protect its own people.”
Sciutto then asked, “The truth is, though, that U.S. officials have been frustrated by their relationships, certainly, in the White House, with Benjamin Netanyahu, and the perception is that the U.S. has invested diplomatic and other capital and backed Israel, certainly, militarily, since October 7 and prior to October 7, but that Netanyahu isn’t returning the favor as it were, for instance, in terms of getting a ceasefire and hostage release deal across the finish line in Gaza. Is that a fair criticism?”
Spielman answered, “I can tell you, Jim, that the last year has been the greatest challenge in Israel’s history. We are threatened by seven different fronts, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in Gaza, and that’s just to name a few. This is the hour that Israel will look back and the world will look back and say, who stands by Israel in this hour? And the U.S., I’m not a politician, I’m here on behalf of the Army, has been the greatest friend and has supported Israel and understands our objectives. Regarding a ceasefire, for an entire year, Hezbollah has been firing rockets, over 9,000 rockets, missiles, and killer drones and no one talked about a ceasefire. Now that Israel’s actually taking the assertion to try to protect its civilians, we’re calling for a ceasefire. As we’ve said, and as the Israeli Army says, we’re open for anything as long as Israeli civilians can go back to their home[s] and Hezbollah withdraws behind the Litani. What we know is that, right now, Hezbollah, every one of those rockets and missiles is inside one of their own homes, they’re civilian homes. You’ve seen the pictures. They don’t care about Lebanese civilians. They don’t care about Israeli civilians. And the world, instead of demanding [that Israel have] a ceasefire, should be demanding that Hezbollah pull out.”
Quote:The Associated Press published an obituary of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that referred to him as a “pragmatist” and omitted Hezbollah’s role in murdering hundreds of Americans, among other terror victims.
As Breitbart News reported, Nasrallah was killed Friday evening in an Israeli airstrike; his death was confirmed Saturday.
The AP obituary declared: “Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah transformed the militant group into a potent regional force.” It described Nasrallah’s rise through the terrorist ranks, his wars against Israel, and his decline in popularity after bringing Hezbollah into the Syrian civil war. But it omitted essential facts about Nasrallah, including his role in mass murder throughout the Middle East, his targeting of civilians, and Hezbollah’s role in murdering Americans.
At one point, the AP’s obituary declared: “A fiery orator viewed as an extremist in the U.S. and much of the West, as well as in some oil-rich Gulf Arab countries, he was also considered a pragmatist compared with the firebrand militants who dominated Hezbollah after its founding in 1982, during Lebanon’s civil war.”
The obituary omitted the fact — noted in the White House response — that Hezbollah had been responsible for hundreds of American deaths, including the bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983.
President Joe Biden noted in a statement:
Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.
(Biden closed his statement by reiterating his call for a ceasefire.)
Fifty-eight French soldiers were also murdered in the barracks attack, leading Louis Sarkozy, son of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, to praise Israel for eliminating Nasrallah.
The mainstream media have a habit of praising terrorist leaders when they are killed. In 2019, the Washington Post called ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi an “austere religious scholar” after he was killed by U.S. special forces.
Quote:Iran’s supreme leader has said the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "will not go unavenged", a day after he was killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of mourning in Iran in response to what he called the "martyrdom of the great Nasrallah", describing him as "a path and a school of thought" that would continue.
Iranian media reported that a Iranian Revolutionary Guards general was also killed in the Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday.
Israel’s military said Nasrallah had "the blood of thousands... on his hands", and that it targeted him while he was "commanding more imminent attacks".
There are fears that the strike could plunge the wider region into war, after nearly a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah sparked by the 7 October attacks and war in the Gaza Strip.
Key to what happens next in the Middle East is what Ayatollah Khamenei decides.
So far, he and other senior Iranian figures have refrained from vowing to retaliate for the series of severe and humiliating blows that Israel has dealt Hezbollah in recent weeks, seemingly because Iran does not want a war with its arch-enemy.
Iran also has not carried out its threat to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, which Iran and Hamas blamed on Israel.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated as terrorist organisations by Israel, the US, UK and other countries.
Earlier on Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei urged Muslims to stand by Hezbollah "with their resources and help" but did not promise to retaliate for the strike that killed Nasrallah.
"The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront," he said.
Reuters news agency meanwhile cited two regional officials as saying that the supreme leader had been transferred to a secure location inside Iran with heightened security measures. They also said Iran was in constant contact with Hezbollah and other allies to determine their next steps, according to the report.
Friday’s Israeli strike levelled several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh, underneath which the Israeli military said Hezbollah’s central headquarters was located.
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death on Saturday. But it did not comment on the Israeli military’s claim that Ali Karaki, the head of the group’s Southern Front, and other commanders were killed alongside Nasrallah.
Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of operations for Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), was also "martyred" in Dahiyeh on Friday, according to the IRGC-linked Saberin News outlet.
It provided nor further details, although the moderate Didban news website said he was "assassinated along with" Nasrallah.
However, there has been no official confirmation from Iranian authorities.
Iran uses the IRGC to provide Hezbollah with most of its funding, training and weapons, which have allowed the Shia Islamist group to build a military wing stronger than the Lebanese army.
The US says the IRGC also oversees the co-ordination of Iran’s network of allied armed groups across the Middle East, which are all opposed to the US and Israel and sometimes refer to themselves as the “Axis of Resistance”. Besides Hezbollah, they include Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen and Shia militias in Iraq and Syria.
On Saturday, there were air raid sirens in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv after the Houthis launched a missile in support of Hezbollah. The Israeli military said the missile was intercepted.
Quote:A surface-to-surface ballistic missile launched at central Israel from Yemen Saturday evening was shot down by air defenses “outside the country’s borders,” the IDF said in a statement.
The missile caused sirens to sound in central Israel due to fears of falling shrapnel. Its remains fell near the Jerusalem-area community of Tzur Hadassah, causing slight damage, police said.
The missile was shot down with the Arrow long-range missile defense system, which is designed to take out ballistic missiles while they are still outside the atmosphere.
The missile was fired shortly after the Iran-backed Houthis vowed that “the resistance won’t be broken,” in response to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an IDF airstrike in Beirut on Friday.
The leader of the Houthis said the missile was aimed and timed to coincide with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s landing in Israel after returning from New York. In a televised speech, Abdul Malik al-Houthi also vowed that the death of Nasrallah “will not be in vain.”
The Houthis also took responsibility for an attack Friday morning, saying they had launched a ballistic missile at a military target in Tel Aviv and a drone at a “vital target” in Ashkelon. The missile was intercepted. The IDF said it was unaware of any drone reaching Israel.
Friday’s missile caused no direct injuries, though a 17-year-old girl was moderately hurt when a car hastily pulling over during the siren accidentally hit her.
The Houthis hinted on Friday that the morning’s missile was retaliation for an Israeli airstrike Thursday that killed senior Hezbollah leader Mohammed Srur.
The Yemeni rebels have launched several attacks targeting Tel Aviv, including a surface-to-surface missile earlier this month.
Israel has yet to retaliate for any of those attacks.
In July, the military conducted a major strike on Yemen’s Hodeidah port after a drone hit Tel Aviv, killing a man in his apartment.
Quote:On Friday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “First Move,” CNN Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond stated that “the escalations we’ve seen over the course of the last week and a half have prompted Hezbollah to go further than they have before,” and the strike against Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is “the latest in a series of escalations that we have seen the Israeli military and its government carry out over the course of the last week and a half.”
Diamond said that the Nasrallah strike “marks just the latest in a series of escalations that we have seen the Israeli military and its government carry out over the course of the last week and a half. And that’s because the Israeli government has really, clearly, chosen and articulated this strategy of continuing to escalate this war with Hezbollah to the point where we are now seeing this very real risk of things escalating much, much more significantly. So far, we have seen Hezbollah fire some 65 rockets into northern Israel in the aftermath of that very significant strike in Beirut. But, if, indeed, this strike was targeting Hassan Nasrallah, if he was injured, if he was killed, I think you are going to expect to see a very, very significant response from Hezbollah. And even just the death toll alone from this strike, which is only just starting to come in, but given that several buildings in that area appear to have been flattened, it will be very significant. That, in and of itself, I think, will likely prompt a very significant retaliatory response from Hezbollah. We will see how that all unfolds.”
He continued, “Up until now, the escalations we’ve seen over the course of the last week and a half have prompted Hezbollah to go further than they have before, but still far short of what Israeli officials have been telling me for months they expected to see from Hezbollah in the event of a significant escalation. And that is not hundreds of rockets a day, but hundreds of rockets being fired simultaneously into Israel, perhaps thousands of rockets a day. That we have not yet seen.”
During the Assault
Quote:The Times of Israel reported on Friday that an American official told the newspaper the government of Israel did not notify the White House prior to a massive strike on the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, on that day.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Friday that it successfully bombed Hezbollah’s top headquarters in the Lebanese capital, potentially eliminating the head of that organization, Sayyed Nasrallah. Nasrallah’s status is unclear at press time.
“Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise strike on the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organization – that served as the epicenter of Hezbollah’s terror,” IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. “Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organization that seeks their destruction on their border.”
Few details about the scale of the strike are available at press time. According to Lebanon’s L’Orient Today, the strikes have leveled at least six residential buildings. Hagari noted in his announcement that Hezbollah – like its similarly Iran-backed allies in Hamas – build terrorist infrastructure in residential communities to use locals as human shields.
Reached for comment on the blasts, an unnamed American official told the Times of Israel that the administration of President Joe Biden was not aware that the IDF would bomb Beirut until the operation had already begun.
“Israel notified the US about the IDF’s major airstrike in Beirut after planes were already in the air and the operation was in motion,” the newspaper reported. “The US did not have any advance knowledge of the strike, says a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.”
A second anonymous official added that the White House was left to “gather more information” about the matter as it did not receive any prior information from its ally.
The attack on Hezbollah is part of an escalating struggle between the Shiite terrorist organization and the state of Israel that erupted in the aftermath of Hamas’s slaughter of over 1,200 people in an invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. As a Hamas ally, Hezbollah has been waging war on the north of Israel, displacing tens of thousands of civilians and effectively making it impossible for Israel to control its territory.
The Biden administration has spent the past month pressuring Israel to seek negotiations with Hezbollah, despite the group’s official motto being “Death to Israel” and its repeated explicit calls for the genocidal extermination of Israelis. On Tuesday, Biden again called for negotiations with both Hamas and Hezbollah in his final address to the U.N. General Assembly.
“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even as the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” Biden claimed. “In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security to allow the residents from both countries [Israel and Lebanon] to return to their homes on the border safely. And that’s what working — that’s what we’re working tirelessly to achieve.”
US on UNRWA
Quote:Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and other “progressive” Democrats have introduced legislation to restore U.S. funding to the terror-linked United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) despite the fact that several of its employees participated in the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7.
The legislation, called the “UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act of 2024,” is almost certain to fail, meaning it is only a symbolic gesture, but a bizarre one.
Then-President Donald Trump cut funding to UNRWA in 2018 amid concerns that it encourages conflict, because it indoctrinates Palestinian children to hate Israel and Jews, and perpetuates the idea that Israel will disappear.
President Joe Biden restored over $700 million to UNRWA after taking office.
After October 7, as evidence emerged that several UNRWA employees had taken part in the deadly terror attack, and that thousands more had cheered it on, the Biden administration suspended funding, as did several other countries.
After a faulty “investigation” that cleared UNRWA — and to which Israel objected — several countries, but not the U.S., restored funding to the agency. Subsequently, UNRWA admitted that nine of its employees may have been involved in the October 7 attack. One of them was specifically accused of abducting a dead Israeli’s body to Gaza.
Still, Schakowsky — whose district includes a large Jewish community — and her colleagues want to force the issue.
In a statement, Schakowsky and other “progressive” Democrats said (emphasis removed):
The United States has historically been one of the largest financial supporters of UNRWA, which serves nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees across the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. In March of this year, the U.S. paused UNRWA funding after the Israeli government alleged that 12 agency employees had direct involvement in Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack.
Following the UN’s investigation and proactive commitments made by UNRWA toward complete accountability and reform, all countries except the U.S. have resumed their UNRWA funding, including the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Finland, Germany, Japan, and Sweden. Approximately 1.9 million people – 9 in 10 Gazans – have been displaced at least once, and an estimated 43,580 are pregnant women. UNRWA has served as the primary humanitarian aid organization operating in Gaza, and without funding, hundreds of thousands of Gaza civilians are left vulnerable. It is estimated that over 1 million Gazans will not have enough food this month, and availability of basic hygiene items has dropped to 15%. In addition to a polio outbreak, Gazans are suffering from malnutrition and treatable diseases due to “systematic dismantling of healthcare”from bombardments on civilians.
“For decades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been a lifeline for Palestinians, providing food, clean water, healthcare, shelter, education, and livelihoods. Today, UNRWA remains the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza as it endures ongoing war and a dire humanitarian crisis. UNRWA and the United Nations have taken swift and decisive actions to address the concerns raised by the U.S. government when it paused funding in January and our allies have all resumed funding for UNRWA. The U.S. must follow suit and resume funding for this critical humanitarian agency,” said Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. “I am proud to co-lead the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act to restore funding to UNRWA and help Gazans get the humanitarian assistance they need at a time of unprecedented crisis.”
Notably, the statement did not deny that UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 terror attack.
The far-left, George Soros-funded J Street organization supports the legislation. J Street claims to be “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” but typically opposes Israel in Congress. In this case, it is supporting a bill that will fund a terror-linked group with the blood of Israeli civilians on its hands.
“Aid workers with ties to terrorists are abhorrent. They should always be rooted out and held to account. But they are the exception. Punishing children and an entire civilian population for the purported sins of a few is not only wrong – it’s immensely dangerous,” said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.
Israel has said that UNRWA will have no role in postwar Gaza and that it must be replaced by other agencies.
Amman Has Been Threatened or Not?
Quote:The Jordanian army says a grad rocket from southern Lebanon fell this evening in an uninhabited desert area near Muwaqqar, a town southeast of Amman.
No people were hurt in the attack and there was no damage, it says in a statement.
Muwaqqar is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the Lebanese border.
Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces said a missile fired from Lebanon landed in the West Bank near Jerusalem, marking what appeared to be the deepest rocket fire carried out by Hezbollah since intense fighting began earlier this month.
Hamas Kills Aid Worker
Quote:Hamas gunmen murdered an aid worker from an American charity in Gaza on Friday, firing at her car and killing her in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.
...
The Times of Israel reported:
Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip shot and killed an aid worker from a US based charity, firing on her car in what Hamas officials claimed was a case of mistaken identity.
Other unverified reports, meanwhile, said that she was murdered by Hamas gunmen for refusing to turn over aid funds to the terror group.
The car in which Islam Hejazy, Gaza program manager at HEAL Palestine, was traveling was intercepted yesterday in the area of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
HEAL Palestine describes itself as “a nonpolitical, nonprofit humanitarian organization” working in Gaza.
There has not yet been any international outcry against the murder, nor have journalists raised the issue; the death appears to have garnered almost no news coverage whatsoever, outside the Israeli media.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, world leaders addressing the opening of the General Assembly continued to denounce Israel — including the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golub, who accused Israel of deliberately targeting humanitarian workers in Gaza.
Israel apologized for accidentally killing seven volunteers from the World Central Kitchen earlier this year after their aid convoy was mistaken for a group of terrorist vehicles.
Blinken on Ceasefire Calls
Quote:On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to criticism that there really isn’t a ceasefire with terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas that want to destroy Israel and will keep trying to do so by arguing that “the alternative, potentially a full-blown war, is going to be bad for everyone involved, and it’s not going to achieve the objective of getting people home.”
Co-host Willie Geist asked, “What do you say, Mr. Secretary — and I know you’ve heard this directly — to Israelis who say there is no such thing as a ceasefire with a terrorist group, whether it be Hamas or Hezbollah, they’re going to continue to do what they do, it’s in their charters to destroy Israel, their goal is to wipe Israel off the map, ultimately? So, what is the argument to the Israelis that a 21-day break might actually lead to some kind of a peace?”
Blinken responded, “Well, I think the argument is that the alternative, potentially a full-blown war, is going to be bad for everyone involved, and it’s not going to achieve the objective of getting people home. Israel was in Lebanon for a long time, up to 2000, 15 years, bogged down there. And yes, when they got out, all of these groups were supposed to disarm. Hezbollah didn’t, and it has posed a threat to Israel ever since. But if we can get an agreement that at least gets them off the border, people will have more confidence, and they can get about their lives in their own country. I think what you’re hearing, clearly, is, the world wants to see it move in that direction.”
He continued, “The other thing is, look, if you’re looking at what Israel’s biggest adversary, and one of ours — Iran — wants, it wants to try to bog down Israel in wars of attrition, whether that’s in the north in Lebanon, whether that’s in Gaza, whether that’s anywhere else in the region. So, don’t play into that. The objective can be achieved — getting people home — without going to war.”
USA
Trump on Ukraine War
Quote:Former President Donald Trump said before a meeting in New York City with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday that it is time for the Ukraine War to end, and thanked Zelensky for defending him during the Democrat Ukraine impeachment hoax.
Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Trump reiterated his pledge to end the war in Ukraine if he wins a second term.
“It has to end. At some point, it has to end. He’s gone through hell,” Trump said, referring to Zelensky. “This country has gone through hell… . Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. It’s a terrible situation.”
Trump also thanked Zelensky for saying that Trump did nothing wrong during the phone call they had that Democrats used to launch the impeachment of Trump in 2019.
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was at the time detailed from the Pentagon to work at the National Security Council during the Trump administration, worked with then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to launch an impeachment of Trump, claiming that Trump tried to withhold military aid from Ukraine until Zelensky handed over information on Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company whose CEO was under investigation.
At the time, Zelensky said Trump did not pressure him during that phone call.
Trump said on Friday, “When they did the impeachment hoax, it was a hoax, just a Democrat hoax, which we won. But one of the reasons we won it so easily is that when [President Zelensky] was asked — it was over a phone call with the president — and he said he could have grandstanded and played cute, but he didn’t do that.
“He said President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. He said it loud and clear, and the impeachment hoax died right there. He could have said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I don’t know.’ And I never even talked to you about this, to be honest. But he was, he was like a piece of steel. He said, ‘President Trump did nothing wrong. We had a very nice call.'”
However, Trump did tell Zelensky that their relationship needed to be reciprocal.
After Zelensky told him, “I really think we’re going to get more good relations,” Trump responded, “But, you know, it takes two to tango.”
Trump said he hoped to work something out with the Ukraine War “that’s good for both sides.”
“It’s time,” Trump said. “And by the way, the president knows that too. He wants to get something done. He doesn’t want to do this. And so we look forward to having them made. I look forward to being with him.”
He thanked Zelensky again, saying, “But what I said is true, he was a piece of steel. He gave a very honest, straight answer, and then it really ended. Essentially ended the impeachment hoax, and I appreciated that.”
Trump on Pelosi's Visa Stock Trades
Quote:Former President Donald Trump took a firm stance on Thursday against Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) regarding her husband’s Visa stock trades.
Trump, who is running against Vice President Kamala Harris (D) for the White House in 2024, said he believes the former House speaker should be prosecuted, the New York Post reported on Friday.
His comments came during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York:
Nancy Pelosi has a little problem because her husband sold their Visa stock. They had a lot of Visa stock, one day before Visa, it was announced that Visa is being sued by the Department of Justice. Think of that. Nancy Pelosi sold vast amounts of Visa stock one day before the big lawsuit that we all read about a few days ago, was brought against Visa. You think it was luck? … Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for that.
The Post cited financial disclosures which show that Pelosi’s husband, Paul, “unloaded 2,000 shares of Visa stock worth between $500,000 and $1 million on July 1,” noting that on Tuesday, “less than three months after the massive transaction, Visa was hit with a DOJ lawsuit alleging that the company illegally monopolized the debit card market.”
Trump suggested that the former House speaker was warned about the lawsuit and told her husband.
Breitbart News senior contributor and president of the Government Accountability Institute, author Peter Schweizer, revealed in 2011 that Nancy Pelosi “apparently bought $1 million to $5 million of Visa stock in one of the most sought-after and profitable initial public offerings (IPO) in American history, thwarted serious credit card reform for two years, and then watched her investment skyrocket 203%,” Breitbart News reported at the time.
Schweizer and the late Andrew Breitbart worked to ban members of Congress from using nonpublic information to their own profit via the STOCK (Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge) Act, Breitbart News reported in March 2012.
“The STOCK Act will make it illegal for members of Congress and their staffs to use material, nonpublic information to inform their private investments and will impose more rigorous public disclosure requirements on all trades by lawmakers,” the article said.
In March 2024 Breitbart News reported that research showing politicians made trades worth over $1 billion in 2023 bolstered a campaign to ban members of Congress from stock trading.
“‘Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,’ a spokesperson for Nancy told The Post earlier this week,” the outlet reported.
Newsom VS Propane Cylinders
Quote:California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill this week to ban one-pound, single-use propane cylinders, meaning that only more expensive reusable cylinders will be available in the state.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Disposable propane canisters like the dark green ones used with camping stoves will soon be phased out in California, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Sunday requiring all one-pound cylinders sold in the state to be reusable or refillable starting in 2028.
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Between 4 million and 7 million of the single-use cylinders are sold in California each year, according to an estimate from the California Product Stewardship Council, a nonprofit local government coalition that sponsored the bill.
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In 2022, Newsom vetoed a near-identical bill, SB 1256. In his veto letter, Newsom raised concerns about prohibiting sales of disposable cylinders “without a plan for collection and refill infrastructure.” The governor also urged the legislature to consider “market-based solutions” over an outright ban.
Democrats say that negotiations with manufacturers failed, and therefore Newsom decided to ban the cylinders.
Critics will note that Newsom’s ban is the latest regulation making life in California more expensive and cumbersome than it is in other states.
On Wednesday, Newsom signed legislation slapping new demands on the oil industry and closing an oil field that has been productive in southern Los Angeles for a century.
Mayor Adam's Chief Adviser in Trouble
Quote:The chief adviser for New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) had her phone seized by federal agents and was “served with a subpoena,” her lawyer confirmed to the New York Times.
In a statement to the outlet, Ingrid Lewis-Martin’s lawyer, Arthur L. Aidala, explained that his client would “cooperate fully with any and all investigations.” Investigators, a state and federal agent, reportedly served Lewis-Martin with her subpoena and informed her that her home had been raided after she had returned to the United States from a trip to Japan, according to the outlet.
This comes after a five-count indictment against Adams was unsealed on Thursday, charging the mayor with bribery, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign nation, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, wire fraud; and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals.
As Breitbart News previously reported, the charges against Adams are in relation to contributions made to his 2021 campaign by “wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.”
“Ingrid Lewis-Martin has been served with a subpoena from the Southern District of New York and her phones were given to the New York County District Attorney’s Office,” Aidala said. “She will cooperate fully with any and all investigations.”
Video footage posted to X by Courtney Gross, a reporter with Spectrum News NY1, showed law enforcement officials at Lewis-Martin’s home.
Illinois Mayor Out of Control
Quote:One of the country’s most controversial mayors is back in hot water after a Tuesday evening Thornton Township, Illinois, public board meeting went completely off the rails, leading to police being called.
Tiffany Henyard, the Democrat mayor of the Village of Dolton and the supervisor of Thornton Township, argued with her board’s attorney and accused the trustees of attacking her for bringing up her spending habits, video from the meeting shows:
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As controversy swirls around Henyard’s lavish $85,000 party with musical performances by singer Keke Wyatt and rapper J. Holiday, her egregious online shopping bills, her alleged participation in a cover-up after one of her colleagues was accused of sexual assault, and other scandals, Thornton Township has been operating without a fiscal budget, CBS News reported.
The board’s trustees are “demanding” that Henyard “become more transparent with her spending,” the outlet stated.
Just minutes into the meeting, Henyard went back and forth with attorney Eric Stach about budget items supposedly already being “approved.”
“No, these matters are being brought before the board now to comply with the new event ordinance because these are events that have to be approved pursuant to the new event ordinance,” Stach said.
“Okay, so I disagree with what the lawyer’s saying,” Henyard said with a smile on her face.
A special investigation conducted by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot revealed that, under Henyard, Dolton’s general fund balance dropped from $5.61 million to a deficit of $3.65 million in just two years, Fox News reported.
Tens of thousands of dollars were spent on Amazon orders in just one day:
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“Lori Lightfoot did such a great job in Dolton,” Thornton Township Trustee Carmen Carlisle said of the investigation at Tuesday’s meeting. “I would welcome her to come and do the same thing here at Thornton Township.”
Henyard fired back, claiming that the township already had a deficit before she entered office.
“This is what I mean about my board,” the disgraced supervisor said. “It’s a lot of hate, jealousy, and envy amongst them towards their supervisor.”
At one point, Henyard made the claim that “I am Thornton Township” as the crowd gasped.
“I am the leader for Thornton Township. I am the supervisor of Thornton Township,” Henyard said. “And I’m going to make sure you all give me my respect and stop playing these games every time you come to the meeting.”
“Respect is earned. It is not demanded,” Carlisle shot back.
As the board continued to discuss her spending, Henyard said Carlisle “lies all the time.”
“No, you lie all the time,” the trustee replied.
Resident Paul Robertz made a public comment calling out Henyard towards the end of the meeting and suggested she acts “like an animal,” which led to an outcry from the crowd. A clip of the chaotic moment, shared to social media by an X user, shows the moment Robertz became surrounded by other residents as they shouted at him:
US Defense on Chinese Submarine
Quote:A senior U.S. defense official said Thursday that China’s latest nuclear-powered attack sub sank in May or June while sitting in a shipyard near Wuhan, a baffling and embarrassing disaster the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has kept secret until now.
The news that China’s new sub went to the bottom – possibly with nuclear fuel on board – was broken by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Thursday.
The defense official who spoke to the WSJ said the lost sub was the first of China’s new Zhou-class nuclear submarines, developed in a bid to reduce America’s enormous advantage in submarine warfare. The Zhou design includes a unique X-shaped stern intended to give the vessel greater maneuverability.
Satellite images showed the Zhou sub, easily identified by its distinctive tail, docked at the shipyard in early March. The sub was reportedly undergoing final outfitting before heading to sea.
By June it was gone, with no sign of ever having sailed out of port. Analysts noticed a cluster of floating recovery cranes had been assembled around the pier, including equipment specialized for recovering oil from the water.
The WSJ’s source in the Defense Department said it was “not surprising” the PLAN would conceal the sinking of their prized first-in-class attack sub.
“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry, which has long been plagued by corruption,” the source said.
“Can you imagine a U.S. nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, Holy cow!” exclaimed former U.S. submarine officer and Center for a New American Security senior fellow Thomas Shugart, the first analyst to notice China’s new submarine was missing.
Shugart concluded from his study of commercial satellite photos that China was able to recover the drowned sub, but it would take “a lot of work” to make it operational again.
“The whole boat would be full of water. You’d have to clean out all the electronics. The electric motors may need to be replaced,” he said.
The PLAN and other agencies of the Chinese government refused to discuss the incident, what caused the sub to sink, or whether there were any casualties. Satellite photos gave no indication the Chinese were searching the water for radiation leaks. It is possible the vessel was not loaded with nuclear fuel before it sank.
If the sinking of the Zhou-class sub is confirmed, it would be the second submarine China lost over the span of a year. In August 2023, a Chinese sub attempting to pass through the Taiwan Strait apparently crashed into a “chain and anchor” submarine trap and sunk. China never acknowledged the incident, but Taiwanese officials said they believed the sunken-sub account in May.
Costco Doesn't Want to be Linked to Diddy
Quote:After news broke that rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs owned a large stock of baby oil for use in his sex and drug parties, Costco came out to inform customers that the music and fashion mogul didn’t buy his oil from them.
The big box store spoke out after Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo speculated that he bought his baby oil in bulk from the members-only warehouse company.
“[Diddy] has a big house. He buys in bulk. I think they have Costcos in every place where he has a home. I mean, have you sat in a parking lot of a Costco and see what people walk out of there with?” Agnifilo told TMZ.
Costco, though, did not seem very pleased to be linked to the rapper’s salacious case and contacted TMZ to refute the attorney’s claims.
Indeed, Costco pointed out to TMZ that none of its outlets even sell baby oil, so clearly Diddy wasn’t shopping at Costco.
TMZ added that they also looked into Sam’s Club to see if Diddy could have gone there to bulk buy his baby oil, but the Walmart-owned retailer also does not stock baby oil.
As reported last week, the federal indictment filed against Diddy claims that investigators found 1,000 bottles of baby oil during it raid in March on the rapper’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles.
Combs was arrested last week and denied bail. He is currently being held in jail as his case moves forward.
As Breitbart News reported last week, Combs has been placed on suicide watch “while he awaits trial after being accused of more than a decade of abusing, threatening, and coercing women and others, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes.”
Prince Harry's Visa
Quote:The Biden-Harris administration’s effort to keep Prince Harry’s U.S. visa application from being made public prevailed this week as a judge ruled against a suit launched by the Heritage Foundation, which claimed the decision was “suspicious” and vowed to appeal the ruling.
Questions remain around the lawfulness of the wayward British Prince’s immigration status in the United States as Judge Carl Nichols sided with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to keep the Duke of Sussex’s visa application private.
The conservative Heritage Foundation launched a suit against the Biden-Harris administration to unseal the application after the woke Royal admitted in his memoir Spare to have taken illegal drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, and magic mushrooms.
While having a history of illicit drug use does not necessarily prevent people from obtaining a visa, lying on an application could result in deportation and a ban from applying for citizenship.
In a court document obtained by the Daily Mail, Judge Nichols reportedly said that the court agreed with the DHS that “the Duke’s privacy interest outweighs any public interest.”
The judge added that Harry’s public admissions of drug use did not take away his right to keeping his immigration status private, noting that the Duke did not publicly disclose “the following facts”, after which the document was redacted.
The Heritage Foundation has argued that the public has an interest in seeing if the government bends immigration rules for high-status individuals, such as the British Prince, who moved to California with his wife in 2020 to pursue money-making ventures after shirking their Royal duties.
Immigration Under Biden-Harris Admin
Quote:President Joe Biden’s administration is allowing up to 650,000 criminal migrants and suspects — including at least 13,099 migrant murderers and 222,141 migrants facing criminal charges — to roam through American communities, according to a dramatic data dump by a House Republican.
“The data says that, among those not in detention, there are 425,431 convicted criminals,” reported Fox News, which got the information from Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX). The letter from ICE to Gonzalez says:
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 [including 13,099 murders], and 226,847 have pending criminal charges.
The data shows that there are 13,099 migrants convicted of homicide who are not detained, Fox noted.
The report says an additional 222,141 undetained migrants are facing criminal charges, including 1,845 homicide charges, even though the agency is choosing not to use all of its 41,000 detention beds.
The data also shows an additional 15,000 migrant criminals in jail. The jailed population includes 277 migrant murderers and 51 migrants who are facing murder charges.
The data also shows 17,000 migrants found guilty, or charged with, sexual offenses.
The “noncitizens” term in the data refers to illegal migrants, overstay migrants, and green card holders, all of whom can be deported if administration officials assign resources to do the job.
The criminals are not in detention because they have served their time, but have not been deported.
The data dump is an urgent political problem for Kamala Harris, who is scheduled to give a speech early Friday evening promising a “tough” border policy.
In March 2021, Harris reportedly declined to share control of migration policy with President Joe Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas. Since then, the Cuban-born Mayarkas has used his power over the nation’s immigration rules to sharply reduce the detention and deportation of migrants, including criminal migrants. His rollback in enforcement is intended to help the “Bidenomics” economic strategy of creating millions of lower-wage jobs for employers who prefer to hire migrants instead of better-paid Americans.
So far, Mayorkas has welcomed almost 10 million legal, illegal, and quasi-legal migrants — or roughly one migrant for every American birth.
Donald Trump quickly blamed Harris for the mass release of migrant murderers and criminals: “Nobody who has allowed this to happen to our Country is fit to be president of the United States!”
EUROPE
Maggie Smith Passed Away
Quote:Dame Maggie Smith — the British acting legend who shot to stardom with her Oscar-winning role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and whose multi-decade career was capped by the Harry Potter movies and the hit series Downton Abbey — has died. She was 89.
Her sons, actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, issued a statement to the BBC on Friday.
“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith,” they said. “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”
Widely considered one of the greatest British actresses of both stage and screen, Maggie Smith tackled many of the most challenging theatrical roles ever written while juggling a movie and TV career that brought her two Academy Awards and three Emmys.
Her high-pitched voice, angular face, and long limbs made her a natural fit for comedy, and she became closely associated with the plays of Noel Coward, especially Private Lives. She could alternately strike an intimidating and imperious air, which led to her being frequently cast as snobbish aristocrats.
Smith was closely associated with Laurence Olivier, who invited her to work with him at London’s National Theater, where she performed in numerous classics. In her later years, she specialized in playing spiky elderly women, most notably her Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey who famously asked, “What is a weekend?”
Russia Hammers Kiev
Quote:Ukraine´s air defenses battled an overnight Russian aerial attack on the capital Kyiv for five hours, officials said Thursday, as missiles and drones again hammered the Ukrainian power grid.
The Kyiv attack injured at least two people, Ukraine´s Emergency Service said. A kindergarten, a gas pipe and around 20 cars were damaged in the city, said the Kyiv Military Administration.
In western Ukraine, the air force said, Russia fired three Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles – one of Russia´s most advanced weapons – “in the direction of” Starokostiantyniv, a city in the Khmelnytskyi region, on Thursday morning. The air force said it could not make further information public, suggesting the missiles were aimed at a sensitive site.
Long-range strikes have been a hallmark of Russia´s military campaign in Ukraine, now deep in its third year, often hitting civilian areas. Attacks on the electricity network have knocked out around 70% of Ukraine´s energy generation capacity, according to the United Nations, bringing blackouts as winter approaches.
Air defense systems are a critical need for Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to meet President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday in an effort to ensure continuing U.S. military support for his country.
Energy infrastructure was hit in Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk region, causing a blackout in parts of the regional capital of the same name, regional Gov. Svitlana Onyshchuk said.
The power grid was also targeted in the southern Mykolaiv region, local authorities said without immediately providing further details.
Russia launched six missiles and 78 Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, Ukraine´s air force said. Defenses destroyed four of the missiles and 66 drones in the air, it said.
In the south, a missile killed a 62-year-old woman in the Odesa region, where homes and cars were damaged, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said.
In the city of Zaporizhzhia, at least 10 people were injured in the overnight attack, including a 14-year-old, said regional governor Ivan Fedorov. He published photographs of houses with their windows blown out and walls riddled with shrapnel. The Emergency Service said 12 residential buildings were damaged in the city and 18 people were evacuated.
Meanwhile, in the northeastern Sumy region ordnance experts defused a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) glide bomb that landed without exploding next to a bridge over the River Psel.
Russia Hits Ukrainian Medical Center
Quote:Two consecutive Russian attacks on a medical center in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least nine people on Saturday morning, officials said.
The first strike killed one person. Russia attacked again while patients and staff were evacuating, said Ukraine´s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Local officials in Sumy said Shahed drones were used in the attack. Twelve other people were wounded, Sumy’s City Military administration said.
Sumy lies some 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 69 of 73 Russian drones launched overnight as well as two of the four missiles. City authorities in Kyiv said around 15 drones had been shot down over the Ukrainian capital and its outskirts.
In Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home city, local officials said Saturday that a man’s body was found under the rubble of an administrative building hit by a Russian missile on Friday, bringing the death toll from that attack to four.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said Saturday that air defenses overnight had shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region and one over the Kursk region, both areas bordering Ukraine.
One person was killed in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border city of Shebekino on Saturday, Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Two other people were wounded.
Ukrainian Parliament on Recruiting More Soldiers
Quote:The British military is too small and the Ukraine war has shown the need to involve “the whole of society” in defence, but the public are deeply averse to the notion of conscription and steering talk away from that is “challenging”, a Parliamentary report on the lessons from Russia’s invasion finds.
The House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee warns Western defence is no longer sufficiently threatening and consequently has failed to deter Russia from invading Ukraine, while lessons from the conflict itself demolish many long-held planning assumptions about what future wars would look like. The British Army is too small to effectively fulfil its NATO obligations or even make a meaningful contribution to more than one conflict at the same time, the committee’s new report states it has found, while condoning recent comments by senior Army officers that in future the civilian world needs to be drawn into defence for a “whole of society” effort.
The size and capability of the UK Armed Forces is predicated on a now apparently out-dated idea that any unexpected conflicts would be resolved in weeks, which has very much not been the case with the Ukraine War. The Lords’ report notes it has been the case a shrinking manpower has been explained away by increasing technical sophistication making up the capability, but argues this position too has been proven as wrong-footed.
The report stated: “…the UK has a well-trained and well-equipped force, but that it is too small and inadequately set up for large, prolonged conflicts like the one in Ukraine… the use of advanced technology has at times been used to justify smaller troop numbers. The war in Ukraine, however, has shown that in a conflict between two technologically capable states, technology is not a magic bullet that can swiftly end a war.”
The “wake up call” paper focusses on the “growing threat from Russia” and notes as well as the endless military recruiting crisis in the UK, caused in part by a dysfunctional recruitment system putting off good potential applicants — the abandonment of a Civil Defence establishment in the Cold War and a comparatively lightweight body of military reserves are also found to be major factors. Taken together, there is said to be a perception among the wider public that fighting wars is something done purely by an entirely separate from wider society military, with fighting done in far-away places and without meaningful impact at home.
While this may have been true in the Afghanistan-Iraq wars era, this time has passed, it is said. The paper states: “Involving the whole of society is crucial if we are to build a resilient and prepared nation. This would entail making the public much more aware of the dangers the UK is facing and, crucially, how they themselves can contribute to greater resilience.”
Although the Lords’ report restates points made in recent memory by senior officers warning that wider society must be prepared to get involved in national defence, it is important to craft these discussions so not to frighten the public. Making clear reference to a definite period at the end of the last government where the question of conscription became a major talking point, with a months long will-they-won’t-they in the newspapers, this new report notes as a warning: “How any discourse around non-military public contributions is articulated is challenging but important. There is always a risk that conversations could end up veering into discussions around conscription”.
UK: Government Needs Another £36 Billion
Quote:The radical climate plans by the Labour Party government in Britain could cost landlords, taxpayers, and housing associations up to £36 billion to renovate their properties to comply with impending energy efficiency standards, the cost of which will likely being passed onto renters, a report has found.
Energy Security and Net Zero minister Ed Miliband has argued that banning landlords from renting older and energy inefficient homes until they make costly upgrades would lift a million families out of “fuel poverty”. However, critics have claimed that such a move would merely push further costs onto renters, who are already struggling under the weight of housing shortages, inflation, and high taxation.
According to an analysis from The Telegraph of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) data, which tracks the energy efficiency of houses across the country, the leftist government’s plans to demand upgrades to some 1.6 million private rental properties could cost between £18.5 billion and £36.1 billion to landlords, taxpayers, and housing associations.
The report found that private landlords could be forced to shell out £10,000 per property to meet net-zero standards. Costs would likely vary significantly by area, however, with regions with older homes facing a much higher burden by government-imposed upgrades. For example, homes in Ryedale, Yorkshire would on average require £19,250 in green renovation costs, per the broadsheet’s analysis.
Opponents of the eco-diktats, such as Shadow Housing Minister David Simmonds noted that similar measures in Scotland merely served to reduce supply of rental properties and therefore increase the cost of renting.
“The cumulative impact of these regulations will force more landlords to exit the sector and sell their rented accommodation rather than meet the target. Instead of pushing ahead with these proposals, Labour should give the rented sector more time to implement such a drastic change without forcing up rents,” the Conservative MP said.
Founder and managing director of the property firm Eccord added: “Landlords have been saddled over the last few years with higher cost from mortgages, additional regulation and fees, and rising maintenance costs – and now another £10,000 expenditure is looming on the horizon.
“These new rules don’t apply to homeowners so they are understandably questioning why such a burden is being placed on them when the majority are already providing a professional tenant experience and valuable source of private housing.”
UK: Starmer Received Expensive Gifts from Donor
Quote:British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was gifted a further £16,000 in clothes from top Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli it has emerged amid the growing scandal surrounding freebies given to senior members of the government.
Donations to Starmer from Labour peer Waheed Alli, made in two instalments including £10,000 in October last year and another £6,000 in February were initially classified as money “for the private office of the leader of the opposition”, however, they have now been re-categorised as donations for clothing, the Guardian reports.
This comes on top of another £16,000 in clothing donations and £2,485 for glasses to Starmer from Lord Alli, taking the total over £34,000 in freebies given to the leftist leader from the media mogul.
Meanwhile, Starmer also admitted to accepting the equivalent of £20,000 in accommodation from Alli for the Labour leader’s son to study for his GCSE tests during the election campaign.
The donations have raised questions as it has emerged that the Labour donor and life peer had been granted a Downing Street security pass even though he is not a member of the government.
Starmer has declared over £100,000 in personal gifts, including tickets to football matches, and Taylor Swift and Coldplay concert tickets.
Amid the growing scandal, Starmer, as well as top members of his government, including Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have said that they will stop accepting clothing gifts while in power.
They have all maintained that previous gift donations were made legally.
However, there have been demands to investigate the fledgling Labour government over the donations, including from the leftist Scottish National Party (SNP).
SNP MP Brendan O’Hara said that the freebies given to senior Labour politicians need to be “comprehensively investigated” or it will become “inevitable that the damaging drip, drip of revelations will continue to erode public trust”.
Separately, Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe said that he is exploring whether a case can be brought against Starmer and others for potentially having violated the Bribery Act.
“If people accept gifts like this they become bought people,” Lowe argued earlier this week, adding: “I think the whole lot of them are a bunch of pork barreling clowns.”
Poland & Baltic States on Ukraine War
Quote:NATO members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will seek European Union funding to build a network of bunkers, barriers, distribution lines and military warehouses along their borders with Russia and Belarus, Estonia’s officials said Saturday.
The three Baltic countries initially announced the plan for a “Baltic Defense Line” in January. In May, Poland announced a similar project called the “Eastern Shield” with a purpose to strengthen its borders with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.
“The need for a (Baltic) defense line stems from the security situation and supports NATO’s new forward defense concept,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said in a statement, adding that “it is extremely important to coordinate our activities with Poland.”
“At the same time, it strengthens the security of the European Union and the military defense of its borders, which is why we clearly see that the EU could also financially support the project,” he said.
The defense ministers of the four European countries located on NATO’s eastern flank met in the southeastern Latvian city of Daugavpils on Friday to discuss the project’s funding.
They didn’t specify how much financial aid Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland would be seeking for the project from Brussels but noted in a joint statement that “Russia´s war against Ukraine has shown that creating physical obstacles on an open ground with no natural defensive cover is paramount even in technologically advanced warfare.”
The ministers said that external threats at the Baltic-Polish frontier are increasingly growing and ramping up fortifications along the border with Russia and Belarus “remains a high-priority contributing to our pledge to defend every inch of (NATO) territory.”
In Estonia, the smallest of the four countries with a population 1.3 million, the establishment of the border defense line is planned in three stages starting in 2025, the Defense Ministry said.
Officials in Tallinn said earlier this year that Estonia is to construct up to 600 bunkers along its 333-kilometer (207-mile) border with Russia in the coming years at an estimated cost of 60 million euros ($67 million). The project is likely, however, to face difficulties and delays because the bunkers will have to be built on private land.
The Baltic-Polish defense line excludes coastal defenses on the Baltic Sea that is shared by the four countries. No mines, barbed wire, anti-tank weapons or other such devices would be deployed in peacetime along the border fortifications, according to Estonia’s defense officials.
Denmark: Foreign Ministry's Facade Full of Anti-Israeli Slogans
Quote:The facade of Denmark’s foreign ministry in Copenhagen was sprayed with anti-Israeli slogans Thursday, police said.
Police told AFP in a statement that they had been made aware early Thursday that a foreign ministry building had been “vandalized with political graffiti”.
Messages such as “Boycott Israel” and “Israel kills children” was spray-painted on the wall in red.
Pictures from news agency Ritzau showed cleaners removing the paint and words. Police said they were securing video images and conducting technical investigations.
The Gaza war has caused protests across Europe. The conflict began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,534 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Fighting between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah has heightened fears that the war could spread across the region.
Slovakia: PM Fico Gets Bullet in the Mail
Quote:At least some appear concerned the shooting of a NATO member Prime Minister by a pro-Ukraine extremist earlier this year didn’t succeed in killing the target, as Slovak’s Robert Fico has a bullet posted to his office.
Constitutional protection officers screening letters addressed to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico inspected a suspicious package on Wednesday, discovering by X-ray it contained a single bullet. Bratislava regional police spokesman, Michal Szeiff confirms his officers have taken over the investigation into the death threat which comes just months after Fico himself was shot repeatedly at point-blank range by a would-be political assassin.
Fico ally Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok has said it will only be a matter of time until the sender is found.
Slovak publication the Konzervativny Dennik Postoj notes the Slovak Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka said sending a bullet to the Prime Minister was a reckless, callous act and a criminal one too. Calling for colling of sentiment — similar appeals already having been made after Fico was shot — Žilinka said: “I strongly appeal to the whole society for elementary decency and humanity! The cynicism and hatred with which our society is overgrown must stop”.
Prime Minister Fico was shot several times at point-blank range as he left a political meeting at a local town hall. The left-wing populist politician had gone to shake hands with waiting members of the public before getting into his official car when the gunman, a left-wing poet and activist fired five times.
Fico was injured in the gut, hip, arm, leg, and his small intestine was perforated five times. The Prime Minister came close to death but was rushed to hospital by helicopter and received emergency surgery, saving his life.
After his arrest, the political activist gunman identified as Juraj Cintula was reportedly keen to cooperate with police and confessed, telling them he decided to shoot Fico because of his position on the Ukraine war. Fico has prevented Slovakia from becoming involved in the conflict as other NATO nation states have...
Antisemitism Growing in Germany
Quote:A hostile wave of “open and aggressive” antisemitism is swamping Germany with government officials cautioning it has been rising steadily since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7 last year.
“We have experienced a tsunami of antisemitism since October 7th,” Federal Government Commissioner for Anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, said in an interview with the AFP news agency, as reported by Welt.
The deadly Hamas attack “further broke the existing dams regarding antisemitism in our society,” he added.
This is reflected in the police crime statistics for 2023 with around 5,000 antisemitic crimes, half of which were committed after October 7th, and all in the wake of growing numbers of migrants still pouring into the country, the report notes.
Klein went on to make an historical comparison with Germany today and as it was at the end of World War II as Adolf Hitler’s powers began to wane but much of his Nazi ideology remained.
Open and aggressive antisemitism in all its forms in Germany and worldwide is “stronger than ever since 1945,” Klein noted.
According to Klein, this “all-time high” reflects a worrying absurdity: on October 7th, “more Jews were murdered than at any time since the Shoah” yet the hate is building even as Jews work to defend themselves and their faith from attacks.
This is not the first time reports have emerged of Germany’s Jewish residents feeling threatened.
As Breitbart News reported, just on 12 months ago segments of the Jewish population in Berlin were being forced to consider a question many once thought unthinkable in the wake of the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers and the subsequent promises of “never again” — is it time to leave Germany?
The fear was apparent in testimonies from a host of Jews in the national capital worried about their futures and those of their families as a rising tide of antisemitism is seen once more to cast a shadow across the city.
Suspect of Rape & Murder Case Not Deported but Released from Prison
Quote:A Moroccan migrant rapist suspected of killing a 19-year-old French girl in Paris was set free from prison early and despite having a deportation order was not removed from the country before the alleged murder, sparking demands that the new government finally crack down on immigration.
France has once again been rocked by another gruesome murder apparently at the hands of a migrant, as the body 19-year-old student, named as Philippine, was discovered Saturday half-buried in the Bois de Boulogne park of the affluent 16th arrondissement of Paris.
The suspected murderer, referred to as “Taha O.”, is a 22-year-old migrant from Morocco previously sentenced to seven years in prison for rape. The migrant, who’s DNA was discovered at the scene of the murder, was released from prison early this month after judicial authorities determined that he no longer presented “a threat or a disturbance to public order,” Le Figaro reports.
Yet, after being released from prison, the migrant was given an OQTF (Obligation to leave French territory) deportation order, which also banned him from the country for 10 years. However, he was not removed from the country before the murder of Philippine.
The Moroccan migrant was arrested by police in Geneva on Tuesday and is currently facing extradition back from Switzerland to France.
The gruesome killing has put fresh pressure on the recently-installed government in France, particularly from the anti-mass migration populist National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen, which won the most votes in July’s legislative elections.
...
RN party president Jordan Bardella said the suspected migrant murderer “had no place on our soil, but he was able to reoffend with complete impunity.”
“Our justice system is lax, our state is dysfunctional, our leaders let the French live with human bombs,” the populist leader added.
“It is time for this government to act: our compatriots are angry and are not going to mince words.”
Bruno Retailleau, France’s new interior minister, the cabinet post tasked with overseeing the nation’s immigration system, said in the wake of the killing of Philippine that the government “must work to ensure the safety of our compatriots.”
“It is up to us, public officials, to refuse to accept this inevitability and to develop our legal arsenal to protect the French. Because it is their first right, and therefore our first duty. If the rules need to be changed, let’s change them,” he wrote on X.
According to the BBC, just 10 per cent of deportation orders are actually carried out by the French government.
Norway on Exploding Pagers
Quote:Norwegian police have issued an international warrant for a man believed to be involved in the supply chain of a batch of explosive-stuffed pagers which exploded in the hands of Hezbollah militants last week.
The National Criminal Investigation Service of Norway (Kripos) say they issued international an warrant on Thursday for a Norwegian connected to the sale of exploding pagers. The 39-year-old wasn’t named in reported in the national press, other than to say — as in the report of Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen, for instance — that he was “born in another country, but is a Norwegian citizen and has lived in Norway for twelve years.”
Foreign media named the wanted man as Rinson Jose, described as a “Norwegian Indian man” by Britain’s The Guardian, and a man with “dual Norwegian and Indian citizenship” by the Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS). According to government documents, the man founded Norta Global Ltd in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2022, a company thought to be part of the convoluted supply chain that saw pagers with added explosives sent to Hezbollah.
Rinson Jose is reported to have travelled to the United States last week on the same day of the pagers distributed by Hezbollah to its networks exploded, injuring thousands and killed at least 12. The Indian was said by his Norwegian employer to have travelled to Boston for a business conference, but he went missing soon after arriving in America.
Oslo Police said they had received a missing person report. They said in a statement: “A missing persons case has been opened and we have sent out an international warrant for the person.”
Wires service Reuters managed to speak to a man they belive was Jose last week in the immediate aftermath of the blasts, and say of their telephone call with the man that he declined to comment on the pagers and hung up on their journalist when probed further. He is not known to have been heard from since.
As reported last week, investigators attempting to trace the adulterated pagers have, perhaps typically for what most presume to be intelligence agency wet work, come across a complex web obfuscating the origin and route of the digital devices. Branded and sold under the name of a Taiwanese brand, that company said it had licenced out its identity to a Hungarian business to sell a particular pager model, which itself denied being involved in manufacturing and stated it was simply an “intermediate”.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
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My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
