Important Takeaways:
- The tornado watch — which is not as urgent as a tornado warning — is effective through 2 p.m. Friday and includes Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.
- A wind advisory has also been issued for nearly the entire state, with occasional gusts up to 50 mph expected. The strongest gusts are expected along the Jersey Shore.
- In addition to the possibility of tornadoes, New Jersey faces a slight risk of severe thunderstorms and flash flooding along with a strong likelihood of dangerous rip currents on Friday.
- They also say some of the storm cells could pack large hail, frequent lightning and heavy downpours.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israeli troops launched a new assault Friday into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas fighters who the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives, as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire deal.
- Officials from Israel and the United States have said they believe Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ newly named top leader and one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, could be hiding in tunnels under Khan Younis.
- The military said Friday its warplanes struck 30 Hamas targets in the city, including fighters and weapons storage sites. It said troops were searching for Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure while engaging in combat “above and below ground.”
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed Thursday that it would send negotiators to talks that mediators have called for on Aug. 15, to be held in either Qatar’s capital of Doha or Egypt’s capital of Cairo.
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Important Takeaways:
- New satellite images show the scale of damage almost one year after deadly wildfires ripped through the historic West Maui town Lahaina — but also show signs of a community gradually recovering.
- The wildfires on Aug. 8, 2023, were the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history, destroying more than 3,900 properties and killing more than 100 people, according to Hawaii officials.
- A CBS News analysis of satellite imagery shows signs of recovery but widespread damage remains.
- The first truck full of residential debris left Lahaina in January and headed toward a temporary debris storage site in West Maui, according to Col. Eric Swenson, recovery field office commander with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Since then, 98% of debris from residential properties has been cleared.
- Around 12,000 Maui residents were displaced by the wildfires, according to Hawaii officials.
- Col. Eric Swenson, recovery field office commander with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said he thinks the rebuilding efforts are creating a “sense of hope and encouragement.”
- “Whenever we get a lot cleared and I meet the resident out there, the dynamic has changed,” Swenson said. “The sorrow, the hopelessness, sometimes it fades away. And what they see on that vacant lot is, they see an opportunity. They see their future in front of them.”
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Important Takeaways:
- After starting as a 25-acre wildland fire in El Dorado County early on Wednesday morning the Crozier Fire is now among the 10 largest active wildland fires in California.
- Uncommonly strong winds for the area and continued hot and dry conditions have allowed the fire to rapidly grow in size within its first day.
- The Crozier Fire has now burned 1,187 acres with 5% containment. The fire had grown by 481 acres between 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
- In their morning report, CAL FIRE Amador-El Dorado Unit says the fire is burning in an area of heavy timber, thick brush and that is proving difficult to access.
- After the Crozier Fire grew by an additional 135 acres overnight, CAL FIRE has also increased the evacuation warning zones.
- California’s sixth-largest active fire grew overnight from 571 acres to 706. That is an increase of 135 acres.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake registered magnitude 7.1 and was centered in waters off the eastern coast of Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu at a depth of about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles).
- Seismologists were holding an emergency meeting to analyze whether the quake had affected the nearby Nankai Trough, the source of past devastating earthquakes.
- Seismology Department official Shigeki Aoki warned that strong aftershocks could occur for about a week.
- Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean, and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.
- An earthquake on Jan. 1 in Japan’s north-central region of Noto left more than 240 people dead.
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Important Takeaways:
- Netanyahu warns of preemptive attack as Tehran speaks of Israel’s annihilation
- “We are prepared both defensively and offensively,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated during a visit Wednesday to the IDF induction base at Tel Hashomer.
- “I know that the citizens of Israel are concerned, and I ask one thing of you: Be patient and level-headed,” he said. “We are striking our enemies and are determined to defend ourselves.”
- Egypt instructed all of its airlines to avoid Iranian airspace for a three-hour period in the early morning on Thursday.
- An Egyptian official was quoted by the state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV as saying that the Iranian authorities said to avoid flying in Iranian airspace because of “military exercises.”
- Many airlines are revising their schedules to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace while also calling off flights to Israel and Lebanon
- On Sunday, Jordanian authorities asked all airlines landing at its airports to carry 45 minutes’ worth of extra fuel.
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Important Takeaways:
- As Iran threatens to respond to the suspected Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, the regional militias that the Islamic Republic has armed for decades could play a role in any attack.
- Iran relies on militias as an asymmetric threat to squeeze both Israel and the United States.
- Iran’s arming began in earnest in the 1980s with Shiite forces in Lebanon fighting against Israel. They became the Hezbollah militia.
- The arming expanded with the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, a longtime foe of Tehran.
- Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is one of the most powerful armed groups in the Middle East.
- The militias in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” include: Iraqi militias, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian militant forces, Yemen’s Houthi rebels
- The Houthis follow the Shiite Zaydi faith, a branch of Shiite Islam that is almost exclusively found in Yemen. The rebels claim they’ve recruited 200,000 additional fighters since launching their attacks.
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Important Takeaways:
- The mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, who is believed to be living in Hamas’ massive tunnel system ever since, was released from Israeli prison in 2011 in a swap for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and has been the head of Hamas’s Gaza operations since 2017.
- He is now the head of the entire terrorist organization, directing its war against Israel from Gaza and its international relations – including negotiations for a cease-fire and the release of the 115 hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.
- “The change in his title won’t stop us from searching for him. He is spurring us to make an effort to find him and attack him, so he’s replaced again,” IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said. “This title, ‘political,’ does not exempt him from the fact that he is a murderer who was part of all the planning and execution of what happened on Oct. 7.”
- IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Al Arabiya after Sinwar’s promotion that “there’s only one place we are designating for Yahya Sinwar, and that’s right next to Mohammed Deif” — whom Israel killed — “and all the other terrorists who are responsible for October 7. It’s the only place we are preparing and designating for him.”
- “Hamas is an organization that considers its steps carefully. Something seems strange when they’re taking such an unserious step. They announced the decision was made by consensus, but I’m not sure. Decision-making in Hamas could have been knocked off balance by all the assassinations,” he said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Tornadoes spawned by Tropical Storm Debby leveled homes, damaged a school and killed one person early Thursday, as the system dropped heavy rain and flooded communities across North and South Carolina.
- One person was found dead in a home damaged by the Lucama tornado, Wilson County spokesman Stephen Mann said in an email.
- North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a briefing Thursday that the state has activated more National Guard troops and added additional vehicles that can rescue people in floods as rains from Debby keep drenching the state.
- The National Hurricane Center said Debby made a second landfall early Thursday near Bulls Bay, South Carolina — about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Charleston. Debby first made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
- A state of emergency was in effect for both North Carolina and Virginia. Maryland issued a state of preparedness declaration that coordinates preparations without declaring an emergency.
- At least seven people have died due to the storm.
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Important Takeaways:
- World War III Coming Soon, U.S. Military Woefully Unprepared
- “The Commission finds that DoD’s business practices, byzantine research and development and procurement systems, reliance on decades-old military hardware, and culture of risk avoidance reflect an era of uncontested military dominance… Such methods are not suited to today’s strategic environment…. The U.S. public are largely unaware of the dangers the United States faces or the costs (financial and otherwise) required to adequately prepare,” — Commission on the National Defense Strategy, July 29, 2024.
- “The Department’s usual laser focus on mission has been supplanted by Marxist-inspired instruction, an eradication of meritocracy in favor of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion promotion programs, with an extra emphasis placed on administration fetishes like climate change… The Chinese, Russian, North Korean, and Iranian militaries are not burdened by such nonsense.” — Blaine Holt, former US Air Force brigadier general, to Gatestone Institute, August 5, 2024.
- Unfortunately, Biden has not addressed the American people in a comprehensive and meaningful way about the greatest threat they face.
- The Commission on the National Defense Strategy is clear on what must be done: “A bipartisan ‘call to arms’ is urgently needed so that the United States can make the major changes and significant investments now rather than wait for the next Pearl Harbor or 9/11.”
- It is unlikely, however, that bad actors will give America a decade more to prepare.
- General Mike Minihan, the chief of the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, predicted in a memorandum to his command leaked in January of last year that America would be in a war with China “in 2025.”
- Xi Jinping can see the United States is starting to stir; why would he wait for his foe to get ready?
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