Important Takeaways:
- “Hezbollah’s model is the same as the North Korean model: tunnels in which hundreds of combatants, fully equipped, can pass stealthily and rapidly underground. In our opinion, Hezbollah’s ‘Land of the Tunnels’ project is much larger than the Hamas ‘metro’ project in the Gaza Strip.” — Alma Research and Education Center, July 2021.
- “Various reports indicate that in the late 1980s, and even more so after the Second Lebanon War (2006), North Korea advisors significantly assisted Hezbollah’s tunnel project
- These tunnels facilitate the movement of heavy equipment, missiles and fighters, and even allow missiles to be launched from within.
- Built beneath the border between Lebanon and Syria, these tunnels allow Hezbollah’s smuggling unit and the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force to transport ammunition, supplies and fighters under the border.
- Many of these tunnels are located beneath civilian infrastructure and populated areas, using civilians as human shields for their activities.
- Even if Hezbollah says it will withdraw to north of the Litani River, the tunnels enable it easily to violate that pledge, with no one above ground the wiser. Hezbollah, moreover, never abided by UNSC Resolution 1701 to stop building tunnels and stockpiling weapons in south Lebanon.
- The current war in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip must not end without the destruction of all the tunnels and the total defeat of Hezbollah and Hamas. Those who are pushing for an immediate ceasefire are only empowering Iran and its terror proxies, paving the way for another October 7-style massacre. The defeat of Hezbollah and Hamas will benefit not only the Israelis, but the Lebanese and Palestinians, as well.
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Important Takeaways:
- A cyberattack perpetrated by Chinese state-backed actors and revealed in October was one of the largest and most significant in U.S. history, according to the top Senate intelligence leader.
- Mark Warner (D-Va.), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told The Epoch Times that the hack conducted by the Salt Typhoon threat group was “unprecedented in its size and scope.”
- “I think it will go down as maybe one of the most significant cyberattacks we’ve faced in our country,” Warner said on Nov. 4.
- Salt Typhoon’s cyberattack is believed to have compromised numerous major telecommunications networks, including those of AT&T, CenturyLink, and Verizon. The attack targeted companies and individuals, including former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
- Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), said during an episode of the “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast on Oct. 31 that his phone was compromised by the attack.
- …the attack was long ongoing and appeared to be conducted for espionage purposes, raising questions about the risk posed by the United States’ lax cybersecurity standards for telecommunications infrastructure.
- The breach is just one part of the Chinese communist regime’s sweeping effort to infiltrate and destabilize U.S. systems and evidence that the United States is failing to defend its systems from foreign interference.
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Important Takeaways:
- Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said Monday that at least 10 people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions widens on the remote island of Flores.
- The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki just after midnight on Monday spewed thick, brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters into the air and hot ashes hit a nearby village, burning down several houses, including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post.
- Rescuers were still searching for more bodies buried under collapsed houses, said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson. Muhari said all the bodies, including that of a child, were found within a four-kilometer radius of the crater.
- Authorities also raised the danger level and widened the danger zone for Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki on Monday, following a series of eruptions that began last week.
- More than 10,000 affected in nearby villages
- “The eruptions that occurred since Friday were due to the accumulation of hidden energy,” Wafid said.
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Important Takeaways:
- A company that rents “sleeping pods” in downtown San Francisco for $700 a month has had 300 people apply for its remaining 17 beds, the company’s CEO said.
- Brownstone Shared Housing describes its mission as “providing low cost housing in the most expensive cities”. Its bunkbed-style “pods” measure approximately 3.5ft-by-4ft-by-6.5ft, large enough to fit a twin mattress. The pods come with privacy curtains, inside lighting and charging ports.
- The company also offers sleeping pods in Palo Alto, where a sleeping pod near Stanford University goes for $800 a month, including utilities. The rent also includes internet, utilities and access to shared bathrooms, storage and a shared kitchen.
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Important Takeaways:
- A majority of households with income between $30,000 and $130,000 rate their personal finances negatively, according to a new survey
- America’s middle class is feeling the squeeze like never before, according to new data.
- Primerica’s latest Financial Security Monitor report for the third quarter found 55% of middle-income households now rate their personal financial situation negatively, a 6-point jump from the previous survey.
- “For the first time in a year, a majority of middle-income households are feeling negative about their personal finances,” said Glenn Williams, CEO of Primerica. “In fact, this latest report represents the highest negative rating we’ve seen since we began fielding the survey exactly four years ago.”
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Important Takeaways:
- An acronym for Churchy Answers That Help You, Cathy is a new AI chatbot that answers faith-based questions from the perspective of a friendly, knowledgeable Episcopalian. Despite its feminine name, the “priestbot,” as Cathy sometimes calls itself, is genderless. There are no ornate flowing robes or croziers, either. But like a wise cleric, Cathy jumped right in with an answer.
- Developed and funded by the ecumenical group TryTank Research Institute, Cathy uses large language models from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and has ingested the Book of Common Prayer and the entire Episcopal Church website. “Cathy represents our innovative approach to leveraging technology in support of spiritual exploration,” says Rev. Lorenzo Lebrija, the founding director of TryTank and an Episcopal priest. Lebrija sees the bot as a virtual guide to the Episcopal Church for existing and potential congregants. Cathy is designed to “translate” the Bible into relatable language geared toward younger audiences. It can also serve as a tool for priests by helping them build sermon outlines, for example.
- Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, a priest at the Episcopal Diocese of Texas who was not involved in the making of the bot
- Cathy is far from the only faith-based bot — many denominations are experimenting with generative AI. There’s Text With Jesus, Buddhabot, Chatbot Eli, Gita GPT, and QuranGPT, to name a few. Artificial intelligence has been a boon for religious scholarship, especially in helping to accelerate translations of ancient texts. But using AI for ministerial work is far more treacherous. In April, the Catholic evangelization group Catholic Answers defrocked its clerical chatbot, Father Justin, after users noticed the digital priest was giving nonsensical answers, such as suggesting Gatorade could be used as a baptismal font. The chatbot was rereleased soon after as JustinBot, a lay theologian
- Is a soulless chatbot really the future of spiritual nourishment
- But most of Cathy’s responses about Episcopal beliefs were sterile and read like copy drawn directly from the church’s website
- While Telving agreed there are opportunities for generative AI be an effective purveyor of knowledge on spiritual matters tailored to the needs of an individual, bots should never replace humans helping in a time of need
- “One thing that makes simulated attention less valuable is that in a time of distress, you might need someone who can witness and understand your pain,” Telving says. “But since a chatbot is only simulating empathy — it does not have consciousness — it can never really witness anything.
- To nourish your soul, you need to be in the presence of other souls.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there would be a “crushing response” following Israel’s airstrikes on the country last week.
- Israel said it carried out “targeted and precise strikes” on Iranian military sites on October 26, almost four weeks after Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation to the killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
- “The United States of America and the Zionist regime will definitely receive a crushing response for what they do against #Iran and the #Resistance Front,” a post on Khamenei’s X account on Saturday read.
- Speaking at a press conference last week, a senior US official said that while the US was not a participant in the planning or execution of the Israeli operation, President Joe Biden and his national security team had encouraged Israel to respond to Iran in a “targeted and proportional” manner with “low risk of civilian harm.”
- Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced on Friday that it planned to send additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and “several” US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers to the Middle East in the coming months.
- Khamenei’s comments have taken a more hostile tone from those he made in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli strikes in late October.
- Khamenei said then that Iranian officials should decide how to respond to the attacks, adding that they “should neither be magnified nor downplayed.”
- Experts had predicted that Iran may look “an off-ramp” or launch a small-scale retaliation following Israel’s strikes.
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Important Takeaways:
- Oklahoma has been faced with a new tornado warning today as the super-charged atmosphere threatens a second wave in just two days.
- Severe storms and tornadoes battered the state early Sunday, tossing cars and ripping roofs off buildings in the middle of the night and leaving tens of thousands of homes and businesses without power.
- Among numerous injuries, 11 people required hospitalization, authorities said.
- Much of the damage was reported in and around the state capital of Oklahoma City, near the state’s center, but also scattered elsewhere around the state.
- The early morning storms set off tornado warnings that extended south to the Arkansas state line.
- More than 99,000 Oklahoma homes and businesses lost power during the overnight storms.
- By late Sunday afternoon, that number was reduced to around 24,000 and no fatalities had been reported.
- Meanwhile, forecasters warned state residents to brace for more heavy rain and possible severe weather through Monday.
- ‘We’re not done with it yet,’ he said.
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Important Takeaways:
- America is back on tropical-storm alert with a giant ‘depression’ in the Atlantic threatening to spawn Hurricane Rafael.
- With the nation still reeling from the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, tropical ocean waters are once again starting to simmer.
- Three developments over tropical waters have meteorologists cautiously watching for the next big storm.
- Sub-tropical Storm Patty is heading east towards Europe while over the weekend, a more powerful system and its twin erupted in the Caribbean.
- AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert said: “We are sounding the alarm for a brewing tropical threat that could bring direct impacts to the Gulf Coast of the United States late this week into next weekend.
- “The brewing tropical storm is expected to make a north-eastward turn across Jamaica and Cuba, bringing heavy downpours and gusty winds to those islands.
- “It is not out of the question it becomes a hurricane in the Caribbean.”
- Warm ocean temperatures late in the season will help boost the formation of the next storm.
- Torrential downpours and strong winds threaten Cuba and Jamaica before heading north towards the US.
- It comes just weeks after Helene and Milton hit Florida causing damage running to hundreds of billions of dollars.
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Important Takeaways:
- On September 22, unnoticed by most Americans, the Biden-Harris administration adopted the United Nations Pact for the Future to transform global governance, which introduces the foundations of a world government. There was no debate, no media coverage, no press releases, and no interviews about the Biden-Harris administration’s surrender of United States sovereignty to the UN.
- Americans were apparently not supposed to find out.
- These agreements usher in a dystopian future, where the UN — an active supporter of terrorism and arguably the world’s most corrupt international entity… in partnership with the unelected and unaccountable World Economic Forum, led by Klaus Schwab… is given unprecedented power over the peoples of sovereign countries, who have had no say whatsoever on the contents of this pact, because it has been kept hidden from them.
- Buried near the end of the Digital Global Compact, in paragraph 30, is the only thing you need to know about it: “We must urgently counter and address… all forms of hate speech and discrimination, misinformation and disinformation….”
- The UN, its member states and the Biden-Harris administration evidently want to establish world-wide censorship that will make any future criticism of their power grab impossible.
- In 2021-22, the UN entered into a partnership with Google to ensure that the search engine only display information reflecting UN perspectives. Dissenting views would have to be erased. The UN did not even hide their totalitarian move, and issued a press release about it.
- Google is clearly doing the UN’s bidding. If you try to google the words “climate change” today, every single dissenting view has been suppressed by the search engine. In the first twenty-plus pages of results that come up on Google, not a single of them deviates from the UN/WEF narrative, with most results only containing links to UN bodies or other institutions that partner with the UN, such as the EU, the World Bank, government websites and a few climate-alarmist articles from the Guardian, the New York Times, AP and Reuters.
- This is what UN censorship looks like now. Can you imagine what it will be in a few years, if countries do not immediately move to stop it?
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