Important Takeaways:
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted a secret raid to destroy an underground missile factory funded by Iran inside Syria prior to the fall of the Assad regime, Israeli military censors revealed on Thursday.
- The declassified photos and videos of the operation, which involved over 100 Israeli commandos from the elite Shaldag (“Kingfisher”) unit, went viral in Israel.
- In a statement, the IDF said:
- On September 8th, 2024, during a special operation by the Israeli Air Force, troops from the Shaldag Unit raided and destroyed an underground compound for manufacturing precision missiles in the Masyaf area, deep in Syrian territory.
- For years, the Intelligence Directorate conducted extensive intelligence gathering and monitoring, confirming the value of the target. In the months leading up to the operation, a plan was launched for the Israeli Air Force to destroy it.
- The soldiers landed using helicopters, with fire and intelligence-gathering support from aircraft, fighter jets, and naval vessels of the Israeli Navy. The raid’s target was an underground compound deep in Syrian territory, funded and supported by Iran. The compound was a flagship project for Iran’s efforts to arm its terror proxies on Israel’s northern border. The compound included advanced assembly lines designed to manufacture precision-guided missiles and long-range rockets, significantly increasing the supply of missiles to Hezbollah and other Iranian terror proxies in the region.
- During the operation, the forces reached critical machinery for manufacturing precision missiles, including a planetary mixer, numerous weapons, and intelligence documents, which were transferred for investigation. The soldiers destroyed the compound and safely returned to Israeli territory.
- The IDF will continue to act strategically and professionally with various methods and tactics to remove threats directed at the citizens of Israel.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: “I salute our heroic fighters for the daring and successful operation deep in Syria. This was one of the most important preventive operations that we have taken against the efforts of the Iranian axis to arm itself in order to attack us; it attests to our boldness and determination to take action everywhere to defend ourselves.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Unless you have lived under a rock or never dared to venture beyond MSNBC or CNN or the front page of the New York Times as your source of ‘news’, none of this will come as a surprise at all…
- But, for those that have lived blinkered from the truth about the border for the past four years, MSNBC just sent your minds to ’11’ on the ‘cognitive dissonance’ scale as they dared to show a chart that – hold your breath here for a moment – shows a massive surge in illegal immigration during Biden’s reign (especially compared to Trump’s).
- “The border was not Biden’s finest moment, frankly,” former Obama administration official Steve Rattner sheepishly admits while showing the dramatic chart, shocking his co-host on MSNBC’s Morning Joe by admitting that:
- “you can see what happened here and Trump is not wrong when he talks about how border crossings were quite low.”
- “They were running about 74,000 a month when he left office. And they, in fact, did shoot up. Some of it was some things Biden said and some ways that they put a moratorium, for example, on deportations.”
- “But in fact, we did get up here almost to 300,000 a month,” Rattner continued.
- As a reminder, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that the border is secure on multiple occasions prior to a March 2024 impeachment vote in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that the Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants since the start of fiscal year 2021, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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Important Takeaways:
- This is truly chilling, especially in the wake of today’s terror attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
- A former CIA officer named Sarah Adams was interviewed on the Shawn Ryan podcast just two weeks ago, and warned that there are more than a thousand al-Qaeda sleepers in the United States right now who are planning major attacks on the homeland.
- She clearly implicates Biden’s open southern border as the entry point for these potential terrorists and suggests that they have developed new tactics and bombs that can evade detection through traditional means.
- Zero Hedge has more details:
- In a recent discussion on the Shawn Ryan Show, former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams warned of a potentially devastating attack planned by Al-Qaeda terrorists on American soil.
- The interview offers significant insights into what may be unfolding, as Al-Qaeda sleeper cells could be activating in the wake of the New Orleans terrorist attack and a possible vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) in the rear of a rented Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas just hours later.
- Ryan asked Adams: “I just want to clarify. You are 100% certain that there are 1,000 plus Al-Qaeda-trained fighters within the US borders?”
- Adams, currently a global threat advisor with extensive experience in Middle Eastern affairs, responded: “Well, Al-Qaeda says they trained and deployed a thousand for this attack. First off, I think there are more than a thousand Al-Qaeda members in the United States, but for the Homeland Attack, that number is based on what Al-Qaeda is saying, so they could exaggerate it; however, they did have about 1,400 in the Hamas Attack so the number is not off from what they did in the first round of attacks.”
- It is difficult to imagine a multi-city attack happening in the United States, but we would be foolish to ignore these warnings. The October 7th attacks in Israel may have just been a preview of things to come here in America.
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Important Takeaways:
- Almost half of executions took place in last quarter, with 12 prisoners hanged on New Year’s Day
- The Islamic Republic of Iran executed over 1,000 prisoners in 86 prisons across the country in 2024, according to a report by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The report says the death toll is “an unprecedented figure in the past three decades,” and represents an increase of 16% from the 864 executions conducted in 2023.
- Most of the regime’s executions took place in the latter half of the year. Almost 70% occurred after the July election of President Masoud Pezeshkian. About 47% took place in the fourth quarter of 2024, when the regime “faced severe defeats in the region and mounting economic and social crises,” the NCRI said.
- Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the NCRI, said that the series of executions represent a “desperate attempt to prevent the uprising of an angry populace who will settle for nothing less than the regime’s complete overthrow. These medieval crimes, however, double the resolve of Iran’s youth to topple the religious dictatorship.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Streets around the US Capitol have been shut down after a vehicle was driven onto the sidewalk.
- Authorities surrounded a car after it drove off the road on Constitution Avenue in the heart of Washington DC.
- Capitol Police said the vehicle was seen driving “erratically” onto the sidewalk, sparking a major shutdown of the surrounding streets.
- The incident happened just before 10 am ET.
- Cops have urged the public to stay away from the Capitol while they investigate the vehicle involved.
- Footage from the scene shows a large police presence around the car and a figure being led away.
- “Officers took the man into custody. Please continue to avoid the area while we investigate the car.”
- Security was already being beefed up in the nation’s capital as it prepares for the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of President Donald Trump
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Important Takeaways:
- America’s first high-impact winter storm of the new year is a coast-to-coast event expected to bring over a 1,500-mile swath of hazardous snow and ice across the central and eastern U.S.
- The storm is roaring ashore on the West Coast Friday, bringing heavy rains and mountain snow to the Pacific Northwest and northern California. From there, it will bring a round of snow to the Intermountain West and northern Rockies on Saturday before emerging in the Plains on Saturday night.
- That’s when the stage becomes set for a significant winter storm. The FOX Forecast Center said north of the storm, a strong arctic high will be supplying cold air, while to the south, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will be flowing north.
- The FOX Forecast Center is expecting “plowable” snow from the north-central Plains through the Ohio Valley.
- Snow amounts will range from a few inches to more than a foot in some spots. This includes cities such as Rapid City, South Dakota, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Charleston, West Virginia, and Washington, DC.
- “Needless to say this will make driving on Sunday and Sunday night extremely hazardous at best, potentially impossible at worst,” the National Weather Service office in St. Louis said in their Friday morning forecast discussion.
- In Kansas, the NWS said snow and sleet accumulations greater than 4 inches are possible, with ice accretions greater than one-tenth of an inch likely. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph, creating blowing and drifting snow, along with near-blizzard conditions at times.
- “With all this said, people should not focus on exact amounts or ranges of snowfall or ice accumulation,” NWS St. Louis said. “Rather, be prepared for a major winter storm.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Meteorologists are raising alarms over worsening polar vortex conditions that could bring extreme cold and widespread disruptions.
- So far, this winter has seen one of the warmest Decembers on record in much of the northern United States. Though many residents experienced snow around the holidays, snow coverage was still at or near 20-year lows.
- However, the polar vortex could bring severe weather conditions, including heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures that could affect travel conditions or prompt school closures.
- Jim Cantore, also a meteorologist, said on X: “Prolonged period of COLD coming across the eastern USA that will only be made worse with whatever snowpack decides to accompany each shot. The Polar Vortex parks itself over eastern Canada for the first couple weeks of 2025 and allows these cold shots to slide southeast and dominate the weather east of the Rockies. The coldest is perhaps around the Jan 9/10th. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this kind of prolonged cold.”
- Meteorologist Mark Margavage said on X: “Woah… now that’s C-O-L-D! Is the South ready for a visit from the Polar Vortex? like I said the other day… PREPARE! This goes for everyone, but particularly if you live in an area that is not used to seeing brutally cold air, put together a winter weather survival kit and keep it in your car… Include things like warm winter clothes, a warm blanket, hand warmers, back-up batteries for your cell phones.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Americans foresee a somewhat challenging year ahead for the country, based on their predictions for various aspects of U.S. affairs and daily life. Majorities of U.S. adults think 2025 will be a year of political conflict, economic difficulty, international discord, increasing power for China and Russia, and a rising federal budget deficit.
- However, there is at least some optimism for 2025, as 66% of U.S. adults expect gains in the stock market, 54% think there will be increasing or full employment, and 52% predict reasonable price growth. Meanwhile, Americans are essentially tied in their projections for what 2025 will hold when it comes to the United States’ power in the world, the number of labor strikes, taxes and crime rates.
- Bottom Line:
- Americans’ forecast for the year ahead is tied to their views of the current domestic and international climates. Recent Gallup polling finds that opinions of the economy, the direction of the country and President Joe Biden’s job performance are all negative, which is likely contributing to their outlook for 2025. The exception is Republicans’ broadly positive predictions for the year ahead as Trump prepares to become president again.
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Important Takeaways:
- New government data shows American consumer debt continuing to grow.
- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data released its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit Wednesday (Nov. 13), showing a slight uptick in total household debt during the third quarter, up 0.8% ($147 billion) to $17.94 trillion.
- According to the report, mortgage balances climbed by $75 billion from the prior quarter, hitting $12.59 trillion at the end of September.
- Credit card balances rose by $24 billion to $1.17 trillion, while auto loan balances ticked up by $18 billion, coming to $1.64 trillion.
- Balances such as retail cards and other consumer loans, were effectively flat, climbing $2 billion, while student loan balances grew by $21 billion, reaching $1.61 trillion.
- “Aggregate delinquency rates edged up from the previous quarter, with 3.5% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency,” the report noted.
- And around 126,000 consumers had a bankruptcy notation added to their credit reports during the quarter, down slightly from Q2.
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Important Takeaways:
- An earthquake with magnitude of 4.7 struck Northern California on New Year’s Day, shaking buildings as far away as Sacramento, but causing little damage and no deaths.
- The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake struck 4 kilometers north-northwest of Cobb, CA, about an hour west of Sacramento, the state capital, at 6:34 p.m. on Wednesday.
- Lake County News reported:
- A moderate earthquake that occurred on New Year’s evening shook residents across Lake County and triggered dozens of smaller quakes in the hours afterward.
- Across Lake County, residents reported feeling the powerful main quake, which they variously described as intense and rolling, with items falling off walls and shelves, and furniture moving.
- There were also those who said it was the strongest quake they’ve felt in Lake County.
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