News of the World

[kyonides]

US NEWS

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Do they work for US enemies!?

Top Iranian Pentagon aide keeps security clearance despite ‘spying for Tehran’ accusation

Ariane Tabatabai appeared to be a willing recruit in the covert influence operation run by Tehran’s Foreign Ministry, according to a trove of leaked files revealed last month by Semafor.

She was previously a key aide to the suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley, whose secret ties to Tehran sparked congressional uproar.

Since early 2022, Tabatabai has been chief of staff to the Pentagon’s assistant secretory of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, Christopher P. Maier.

Malley was quietly placed on unpaid leave in June for his alleged mishandling of “protected material.”

But the Pentagon will let Tabatabai, 38, keep her $153,434-a-year job, along with her top secret security clearance, the Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday.

“Ms. Tabatabai’s employment and clearance processes were carried out in accordance with all appropriate laws and policies,” Pentagon official Rheanne E. Wirkkala wrote to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) last week.

Republicans reacted with fury to news that Tabatabai will keep her job — and her access to the Pentagon’s most sensitive secrets — and called her an Iranian “spy.”
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said he may subpoena Tabatabai as part of his committee’s probe into Malley.

Dept. of Homeland Security Puts Official on Leave: She Worked for the Palestinians, Wrote Anti-Israel Posts

Nejwa Ali, who had been hired in 2019 and was working at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as an asylum officer, had worked for the PLO in 2016 and 2017 prior to being hired by DHS, according to the New York Post.

Ali was reportedly a public affairs officer for the PLO’s delegation to the U.S.A. and, according to her Linkdin profile, in Jan. she was handed an even higher position with DHS and was working as an adjudication officer, a position in which she was responsible for vetting people before they enter the U.S.

But Ali’s social media accounts have revealed a deep animus for Israel and Jews and are filled with hateful rhetoric which has been steadily mounting over the last month. And on Wednesday, DHS spokesman Matthew Burke said Ali had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Ali wrote numerous posts glorifying the attacks on Israel, including idealized artist representations of the Hamas hang gliders who descended on southern Israel killing, raping, torturing, and kidnapping Israeli civilians as they went.

Surge in Violence

Detroit Synagogue President Samantha Woll Stabbed to Death

Samantha Woll, 40, board president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, Michigan, was murdered Saturday, and was found stabbed to death outside her home.

A politically connected Detroit synagogue president was found stabbed dead this morning outside her home in the city’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, east of downtown.


Samantha Woll, 40, led the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue and previously worked for Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and on the re-election campaign of Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats.
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“I am shocked, saddened and horrified to learn of Sam’s brutal murder,” Nessel said in a statement. “Sam was as kind a person as I’ve ever known. She was driven by her sincere love of her community, state and country. Sam truly used her faith and activism to create a better place for everyone.”
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No motive has yet been identified, but Jewish institutions have been under threat ever since the Palestinian terror group Hamas carried out a massive attack in Israel on October 7, murdering over 1,400 people.

17-year-old girl wanted in mass shooting outside Denver bar arrested in California

A 17-year-old girl wanted for allegedly shooting five people after being turned away from a Denver bar last month has been arrested more than 900 miles away in California.

Officers from the Denver Police Department tracked down Keanna Rosenburgh to a location in the city of Barstow in San Bernardino County Thursday, with assistance from the FBI and local police.

Rosenburgh was being held in California on 8 counts of investigation of first-degree attempted homicide, police said in a news update Friday.

The mass shooting occurred on September 16 outside country singer Dierks Bentley’s crowded Whiskey Row bar in Denver’s downtown.

The shooter, later identified by the police as Rosenburgh, was allegedly angry after being stopped by security guards from entering the drinking establishment because they suspected she was using a fake ID, the station KDVR reported at the time.
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As seen in a surveillance video, the teen then pulled out a gun and unleashed a barrage of gunfire towards the packed nightclub.

The flying bullets struck 5 innocent bystanders, who police said were not the intended targets.

Four students among five shot at Baltimore’s Morgan State University during homecoming week

Four students were among five people shot at Morgan State University in Baltimore on Tuesday night during homecoming week, sending the school into lockdown for over two hours.

No arrests were made in the shooting on the campus of the historically black university in Maryland by early Wednesday — and police didn’t reveal if they believe more than one suspect opened fire.

Four males and one female between the ages of 18 and 22, all students at the college, were shot when the gunfire erupted around 9:25 p.m., according to police.

None of the injuries were life-threatening, police said.

Morgan State University police were patrolling the campus when they heard the gunfire and called Baltimore police for backup.

Suspect arrested after bomb threat shuts down BWI Airport

At least one person was arrested Wednesday after making a bomb threat at Baltimore/Washington International Airport that briefly halted operations.

The suspect parked their car at a curb outside the airport and threatened officials, claiming to have a bomb inside their vehicle, an airport insider told CNN.

Video posted on X, formerly Twitter, shows an individual being taken into custody.

BWI shuttered the terminal roadway to all traffic as a bomb squad combed through the car.

After approximately one hour, the vehicle was cleared and the road was reopened to traffic.

The short-lived emergency took a hefty toll on the airport’s operations.

Senate Staffer Robbed at Gunpoint in Gun-Controlled Washington, DC

A staffer for Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) was robbed at gunpoint in gun-controlled Washington, DC, on Thursday shortly before 8:30 p.m.

The staffer “was walking down the sidewalk” when a man approached, put a gun in her face, and said, “‘Give me your purse and keys,'” WUSA 9 reported.

The staffer handed over her keys and other belongings and the robber got in her car and drove off.

The staffer was not physically harmed.
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On September 20, 2023, Breitbart News noted that House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) warned staffers not to wear jewelry or become distracted on cell phones while walking around in crime-ridden, Democrat-run Washington, DC. He did this as part of an effort to inform staffers of things they could do to lessen the chances of becoming targets of criminals as crime surges in D.C.

CNBC: Biden Missed Chance to Refill SPR at Lower Rates After Draining It for Political Reasons

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

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

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

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

CVS pulls popular cold medicines from store shelves

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

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

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

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

Jim Jordan Ousted as GOP Speaker-Designate by Secret Ballot

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

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

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

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Russian Shelling Kills at Least Two Civilians, Ukraine Claims

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

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

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

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

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

Asylum Seeker Arrested in Britain over Alleged Terror Attack, Details Being Kept From Public

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

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

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

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

Belgian Minister Resigns over Ignoring Extradition Request for Tunisian Terrorist

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

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

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

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

 Err, and how will the magistrate be punished for overlooking that official extradition request?
I mean, the Belgians can't get some sort of relief until such an irresponsible official gets kicked out of the judiciary power. Besides, is that Tunisian citizen the only case out there? Or are there more people still waiting for their corresponding deportations?  

MIDDLE EASTERN NEWS

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Gaza Church Not Bombed, But Israeli Airstrike Targeting Hamas Nearby Caused Damage, Casualties

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drones attack two US military bases in Syria

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foreign citizens not allowed to leave Gaza despite Egypt border opening

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

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

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

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

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

Four Syrians Arrested After Explosion at Israeli Embassy in Cyprus

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

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

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

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