Important Takeaways:
- The Islamic Republic will collapse sooner than people think, and the Iranian people will be free, paving the way for relations between these two ancient cultures, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
- “When Iran is finally free and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different,” he said.
- “When that day comes, the terror network that the regime built in five continents will be bankrupt, dismantled,” Netanyahu explained, adding that Iran will thrive as never before.”
- “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu said on Monday. “There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country.”
- On Monday he released a statement in English aimed at the Iranian people, explaining that “at this pivotal moment, I want to address you – the people of Iran. I want to do so directly, without filters, without middlemen.
- “Every day, you see a regime that subjugates you, make fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza.
- “Yet every day, that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war,” he said.
- “With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you — the noble Persian people — closer to the abyss,” he stated.
- “The vast majority of Iranians know their regime doesn’t care a whit about them,” Netanyahu said.
- “There are tens of millions of good and decent people with thousands of years of history behind them and a bright future ahead of them,” he said.
- When that day comes, he said, “Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people and the Persian people, will finally be at peace.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The haze and chemical smell had spread to Atlanta by Monday morning, prompting firefighters to use detectors to check the quality of air in various parts of the city, Mayor Andre Dickens said.
- Closer to the source of the fire, officials said chlorine, a harmful irritant, had been detected in the air from the fire at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Georgia
- In Atlanta, officials said they believe the hazy conditions and chemical smell is “related to the BioLab fire, but why we are seeing the change in conditions is what we are attempting to figure out.”
- People in the northern part of Rockdale County, north of Interstate 20, were ordered to evacuate on Sunday, and others were told to shelter in place.
- The fire ignited when a sprinkler head malfunctioned around 5 a.m. Sunday at the BioLab plant in Conyers, Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel told reporters. The malfunction caused water to mix with a water-reactive chemical, producing a plume of chemicals.
- The company also said that no injuries were reported.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Helene’s path of destruction stretched more than 500 miles, from coastal Florida to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
- Short on supplies, power and patience, storm victims who saw the brutal force of Helene upend their lives have emerged to a new week, facing the daunting challenge of rebuilding.
- Some of the roads and bridges they need to do the job aren’t there anymore.
- Electricity could be a week away or longer.
- Emergency services are stretched.
- Communications infrastructure is in shreds.
- North Carolina suffered the highest death toll, at least 42 so far
- At least 25 storm victims also perished in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, four in Tennessee and two in Virginia.
- More than 2 million customers remain without power
- Officials in Buncombe County, North Carolina – where at least 30 people have died – have received about 600 missing persons reports through an online form
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Hezbollah’s deputy chief has pledged that the Lebanese armed group is ready to meet an Israeli ground offensive, despite the killing of its leader and many senior commanders.
- Israel has not hit Hezbollah’s military capabilities, said Sheikh Naim Qassem on Monday as he delivered a message of defiance in a public address.
- Despite the setbacks suffered during the bombardment of Lebanon in recent days, he insisted that the Iran-linked armed group will continue to fight.
- Hezbollah’s operations have continued at the same pace and more since the killing of leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, Qassem asserted
- For the first time since stepping up its attacks on Lebanon, Israel on Monday struck a central area of the capital Beirut, signaling further potential escalation towards an all-out war.
- Hezbollah’s insistence that it can defend Lebanon was supported by backer Iran, which appears wary of the risk of a wider regional war that any direct confrontation with Israel would carry.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- As the war in Ukraine enters a critical period, the European Union has decided it must take responsibility for what it sees as a security threat in its own neighborhood, and it’s preparing to tackle some of the financial burden, perhaps even without the United States.
- The EU rarely moves ahead on international matters without the U.S., particularly involving major conflicts, but it hopes this decision will encourage others to come forward.
- EU envoys have been working this week on a proposal to provide Ukraine with a loan package worth up to 35 billion euros ($39 billion).
- “Crucially, this loan will flow straight into your national budget,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv last week. “It will provide you with significant and much-needed fiscal space. You will decide how best to use the funds, giving you maximum flexibility to meet your needs.”
- Zelenskyy wants to buy weapons and bomb shelters and rebuild Ukraine’s shattered energy network as winter draws near.
- Most of the 27-nation EU fears a Putin victory would lead to deep uncertainty. Russia’s armed forces are depleted and currently incapable of another war, but the prospect of a future land grab in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland remains.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- China’s efforts to achieve maritime military parity with the US have suffered a serious blow after its newest state-of-the-art nuclear submarine sank in a dock, American officials have confirmed.
- The incident happened last May or June at the Wuchang shipyard near Wuhan and came to light, thanks to satellite imagery, despite efforts by the country’s communist authorities to stage a cover-up.
- It is not known if there were any casualties – or if the submarine had any nuclear fuel onboard at the time
- American officials say they have no indication that Chinese authorities have checked the water or nearby environment for radiation.
- There has been no acknowledgment of the incident from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
- “Can you imagine a US nuclear submarine sinking in San Diego and the government hushes it up and doesn’t tell anybody about it? I mean, holy cow!” Shugart said.
- A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington said they had no information to provide. “We are not familiar with the situation you mentioned and currently have no information to provide”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Authorities are going house-to-house and urging people below the dam of a popular lake in the western North Carolina mountains to evacuate as officials warn the barrier could be nearing failure.
- Relentless rain from what was once Hurricane Helene has resulted in catastrophic flooding from Florida to North Carolina as the storm moves inland across the Southeast.
- By Friday afternoon, officials said that the wall of the dam is currently holding but water from the flooded Broad River is overtopping it and support structures have been compromised.
- “Move to higher ground now!” NWS officials wrote in the warning. “This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”
- All of western North Carolina is under a high risk of flooding Friday, with as much as 20 inches of rain possible in some places before Helene moves away this weekend.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- “Marginalized,” “powerless,” living in the “Twilight Zone.”
- Parents of a trans teenager living in Geneva used those words to describe how they have lived in shock and fear over the last 19 months after their then 15-year-old daughter was removed from their home by court order following their objections to giving her puberty blockers.
- Now, they are fighting under threat of criminal charges to preserve her identity and stop her from making potentially irreversible changes to her body.
- “This is not a question of human rights,” the father told Fox News Digital. “This is a question of conducting medical experiments on children.”
- The parents of the now 16-year-old – who wish to remain anonymous to preserve their family’s privacy – claim they have struggled to combat the institutional powers that have accused them of parental abuse for their refusal to give their daughter elective medicine.
- Against the parent’s wishes, the private school their child attended began to “socially transition” their daughter and connected her with a transgender advocacy organization.
- By the time their daughter was 15, a school psychologist – who she saw in addition to the private psychiatrist hired by her parents – reached out to the Swiss Child Protection Agency (SPMI) and claimed the minor needed protection from her “transphobic” parents following their continued objection to puberty blockers.
- Eventually, based on alleged mental and physical health concerns, a Swiss court decided their daughter should be placed in a supervised home run by social services known as a “foyer” – where the now 16-year-old has remained for more than a year.
- “International law holds that a child shall not be separated from her parents against their will, except in cases of abuse,” legal counsel for ADF International, Dr. Felix Boellmann, said in a statement.
- The father told Fox News Digital that it is still unclear to him and his legal team what abuse was identified in order to allow them to remove his daughter from her home.
- In Switzerland, minors are allowed to legally change their name and registered sex at the age of 16, which her parents fear could make it that much easier for her to physically transition.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- More health-care workers in contact with Missouri bird flu patient report respiratory symptoms
- One health-care worker who had symptoms had what investigators consider high-risk contact with the patient, meaning they provided care before the hospital advised taking precautions such as wearing a mask when tending to the patient.
- Three additional workers reportedly had low-risk contact with the patient after the hospital required precautions.
- None of these workers was tested at the time they experienced symptoms, the CDC reported Friday.
- It has been three weeks since the CDC and Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced that a person who had no contact with animals had tested positive for H5N1, the 14th human infection in the United States since April.
- None of the people in the US with a confirmed H5N1 infection is known to have infected other people. That would raise alarm because it would suggest that the virus was changing in ways that could allow it to more easily infect humans.
- The agency says the immediate risk to the public from H5N1 bird flu continues to be low.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Israeli Defense Forces carried out a “precise strike” on the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon
- IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the headquarters were intentionally built in the heart of the Dahieh in Beirut under residential buildings “as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields.”
- Security sources in Lebanon said the attack targeted an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based.
- It was the heaviest attack in Beirut in almost a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
- The strikes hit Beirut shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel’s attacks on Iranian-backed fighters in Lebanon in a closely watched United Nations speech, as hopes faded for a ceasefire that could head off an all-out regional war.
- The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has drastically escalated over the last month as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has begun targeting the terrorist network’s hot spots and military storage units, all of which are strategically embedded within civilian villages.
Read the original article by clicking here.
