[IsraelTimes] Repatriation flights operated by Israeli carriers to bring citizens back safely from Dubai to Tel Aviv have been canceled after the carriers’ UAE landing permit was revoked on Wednesday
“Arkia has engaged with all relevant parties to regain authorization and operate the flights,” the airline said in a statement. “Unfortunately, these efforts have so far been unsuccessful, and we are therefore forced to cancel the flights.”
Arkia said passengers will receive a full refund for their tickets. Additionally, passengers who independently reach a destination from which Arkia operates flights to Israel will receive a 10 percent discount on the purchase of a ticket to Israel.
El Al and Israir have also canceled their planned flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv through Thursday. Israel had expected the repatriation flights operated by Israeli carriers to conclude by Thursday.
Last week, after an attempted terror attack by an Omani copilot aboard a flydubai flight en route to Ben Gurion Airport, the Dubai-based carrier canceled all services to Tel Aviv pending an ongoing investigation into the incident. At the request of authorities, flydubai temporarily suspended operations to Tel Aviv at least through October 14, the airline said.
The suspension left an estimated 10,000 Israelis stranded in Dubai and at other destinations from which they had been scheduled to return via the UAE. Flydubai had operated 10 daily flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai, with approximately 170 passengers each, according to flight data.
The first repatriation flights from Dubai operated by Israeli airlines landed at Ben Gurion Airport late on Friday. At least 7,415 passengers have returned to Israel from Dubai on special flights operated by Israeli airlines and via Abu Dhabi on commercial flights by Etihad Airways, the Transportation Ministry said on Tuesday.
Delays tied to security preparations and baggage handling had already complicated the rescue flights before they began on Friday. It is unclear if the latest cancelations are linked to the same security arrangements.
Etihad Airways added two flights on the Tel Aviv-Abu Dhabi route over the weekend and now operates a total of eight daily flights between the two cities with the aim of helping Israeli passengers return.
[ToloNews] The Telegraph has reported that British special forces personnel could face prosecution and imprisonment over alleged crimes in Afghanistan.
According to the report, the UK Ministry of Defence identified documents in early 2026 indicating that some troops deployed to Afghanistan may have committed "serious offences."
Nearly 150 special forces soldiers have been warned that they may be questioned or asked to provide evidence as part of the inquiry.
The inquiry is examining allegations dating from 2010 to 2013, according to which at least 80 unarmed Afghans, including children and detainees, were killed.
The Telegraph reported: "Jonathan Glasson KC, the counsel for the judge chairing the independent inquiry, made the disclosure about the new allegations in a written statement to the London court on Monday."
This is the first official confirmation that personnel from units such as Britannia’s Special Air Service (SAS) could face prosecution over allegations of unlawful activities in Afghanistan.
Glasson wrote in the statement: "In early 2026, as a result of inquiries set in train by the inquiry, the Ministry of Defence identified material that indicated that service personnel deployed on operations may have committed serious offences under the Armed Forces Act 2006."
Tahir Yarghal, a military analyst, said: "To strengthen public confidence in a country’s armed forces, it is essential that countries investigate their personnel or forces who may have committed war crimes in another country. Cases should be opened against them, they should be referred to the relevant courts, and the matter should be seriously pursued so that those responsible are held accountable for their actions."
Britannia maintained a military presence in Afghanistan from October 2001 until the end of 2014. Most of its forces were deployed in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... from 2006, particularly in Sangin, while Kandahar was also an important area of British military activity.
An independent inquiry into allegations involving British special forces was established in December 2022 and formally began in March 2023.
Sediqullah, a resident of Helmand, said: "My cousin’s home was also raided at night, and they killed them. It was either the British or the Americans. When we arrived in the morning, one of them was missing his head and one hand, while another had been torn to pieces."
Abdul Malik, a resident of Uruzgan, said: "They should be asked why they did such things. What kind of human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... is this? They should be taken to court and asked why they committed so much cruelty."
This comes as Human Rights Watch has previously called on the United States and other countries involved in the war in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021 to investigate alleged war crimes committed by their forces and provide compensation to victims.
In a statement, the organization stressed that government inaction and the passage of time should not deprive victims of justice and compensation.
[FOX] American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten drew backlash Wednesday after filming a video from a field near Newark’s Delaney Hall migrant detention facility, where she decried alleged conditions inside.
Weingarten’s video, filmed within view of the facility, comes as school-choice advocates have criticized her political activism while student academic performance remains below pre-pandemic levels — with one critic recently summing up the contrast as a desire to "dictate … policy on immigration while its own members’ students struggle with basic skills."
"Dangerous rhetoric from politicians and activists demonizing our brave ICE officers has led to the over 8,000% increase in threats against DHS law enforcement who are heroically performing their congressionally mandated mission to remove criminal illegal aliens from communities across the country," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital when asked about Weingarten’s visit.
"Any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention facilities is false," the agency said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Weingarten through AFT for comment. In her video, Weingarten disputed DHS’ characterization of conditions at the facility:
"This is one of the most despicable things that our current government does," Weingarten said as she was filmed pointing and gesticulating toward Delaney Hall.
"They put people — people have not committed any crimes — they are immigrants. They deport them, or they … detain them and deport them in conditions that are unimaginable."
Weingarten, who grew up about 40 miles north of New York City in Nyack, New York, said her grandparents came to the U.S. seeking a better life, drawing a comparison to migrants detained at Delaney Hall.
"We saw families coming out [of Delaney] who had just visited their loved ones… They work hard. They play by the rules. They should not be detained or deported because we have a broken immigration system," she claimed. "We should fix the immigration system, but the cruelty of this government right now is terrible."
DHS said in response to Weingarten that its mission remains "straightforward" — enforcing laws on the books and protecting America’s national security.
"Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now," the DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/08/2026 11:33 Comments ||
Top||
#4
There’s usually some local proposition or bond measure to increase funding for local schools. Vote against every one of these this November. Our public education system is broken. Defund it wherever possible.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Kamran Gasanov
[Regnum] For the first time since its founding in August, the Meccan Union has been activated. Türkiye, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia have agreed to immediately deploy military contingents to the kingdom.
The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the alliance's Strategic Political and Defense Committee in Riyadh on October 5. The reason was the same: the intensification of the Houthi war against Saudi Arabia and its allied government in Yemen. However, the final statement did not mention the Houthi movement, Ansar Allah, by name.
In purely legal terms, representatives of the three countries' foreign ministries promise to "move to the practical implementation of collective defense obligations," that is, to protect Saudi Arabia from attacks.
And in recent days, they have been impressive. The King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the airports in Abha, Jizan, and Najran, the Al-Dagharir military camp and other facilities in the Jizan region, as well as the Aramco refinery in Riyadh, have all been hit.
But how Turkey and Pakistan will assist Saudi Arabia or respond to the Houthis is a big question. After all, the size of the contingent, types of weapons, areas, and deployment dates were not disclosed in the communiqué. This is not only due to military secrecy, but also to the fear of being accused of weak and insufficient support and, consequently, the ineffectiveness of the military bloc.
Theoretically, Ankara and Islamabad, together, are capable of providing the Saudis with support that could prove decisive. Turkey possesses the second-largest army in NATO and a sophisticated military-industrial complex (Bayraktar drones, its own UAVs, and air defense systems), while Pakistan is the only nuclear power in the Islamic world with experience participating in coalition operations. Combined with Saudi petrodollars, the alliance is solid.
However, the practical implementation of the agreements faces a number of limitations. First, logistics: the rapid deployment of significant ground forces to Saudi Arabia will require a large-scale airlift operation and the coordination of corridors.
The Saudis have no need for the half-million- strong army that George H.W. Bush deployed to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. But what if the Houthis try to seize some of the kingdom's southern lands, such as Asir, Jizan, and Najran, which the Yemenis have historically claimed?
Secondly, and most dangerously, the open involvement of Turkish and Pakistani troops in the war could provoke Iran to more actively support the Houthis.
Do Turkey and Pakistan want problems with Iran, even under pressure from Donald Trump ? Unlikely: Tehran has numerous missiles, including hypersonic ones, UAVs, and other deadly weapons.
Third, there's a fine line between defending an ally and engaging in aggressive war. The risk of the latter exists, given that the official Yemeni army has launched an offensive against the Houthis (Operation Yemen Dawn), and the Saudis are assisting it.
Government forces say they are advancing on the port of Mokha, which was recently captured by the Houthis, and attempting to lift the blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which about 12% of global trade passes.
Weighing the pros and cons, one can conclude that initially, Pakistan and Turkey will resort to symbolic measures, such as strengthening the air defenses of Saudi cities and holy sites, deploying advisers, specialists, and air defense crews. However, they will avoid full-fledged ground intervention. The main goal now is to save face for the Meccan Union and explain the rationale for its creation.
The Yemeni conflict is flaring up again, once again becoming a regional issue. The country's government is based in the capital of Saudi Arabia. Representatives from Turkey and Pakistan are arriving there to discuss possible assistance. Meanwhile, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who, by a twist of fate, was born in Riyadh, is also arriving.
Al-Sharaa met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The official agenda is to develop bilateral ties and regional stability, but the context of the escalation in Yemen adds an additional dimension to the visit.
Earlier, the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, citing sources within the Houthi movement, claimed that Saudi Arabia was transferring radical Islamists from Syria to Yemen, with Turkey participating. Ansar Allah political bureau spokesman Khuzam al-Assad stated in an interview that "the situation is repeating itself."
It's possible that Turkey and Pakistan have decided that supplying weapons and air defense systems to the Saudis (plus a few advisers) is risk-free, and if manpower is needed, they can use idle former members of various rebel organizations in Syria. They no longer need to fight Bashar al-Assad's army, and they seem to have reached an agreement with the Kurds. Especially since the Saudis are willing to pay handsomely.
Turkish media presented the Mecca Alliance's decision as an important step toward stabilizing the Red Sea and protecting Saudi energy infrastructure.
It is emphasized that for Ankara, ensuring the security of Bab el-Mandeb is not only a matter of solidarity with Riyadh but also a matter of direct economic interest. The Red Sea is the main maritime trade route with Asia.
Hurriyet quotes Oral Toğu, an expert at the Turkish Center for Iranian Studies (İRAM), who points out that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has made an alternative corridor via the East-West Pipeline and the port of Yanbu critical for Saudi Arabia. It is this route that has been threatened since the Houthi seizure of Mokha and Perim Island. Turkiye Today, meanwhile, focuses on the institutionalization of the pact and the transition from declaration to concrete action.
At the same time, the Turkish press carefully avoids the issue of direct involvement in the fighting in Yemen. The emphasis is on "collective deterrence," strengthening air defenses, and military-technical cooperation, rather than ground intervention.
This is consistent with Ankara's overall policy of supporting Saudi Arabia as a key regional partner but avoiding open confrontation with Iran and its proxies. It was not for nothing that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made it clear in late September that Turkey was under no obligation to join the military action against the Houthis.
The point at issue is defense against missiles and drones launched against the Sunni monarchy. The Turks are unlikely to bomb Yemen in retaliation.
The US and Israel have stirred up the Middle East, and now the Houthis and Saudis are back in full-blown war, while Turkey and Iran are being dragged into it unwittingly, to the delight of Benjamin Netanyahu.
United Airlines captain Ibrahim R. Mossallam is reportedly still flying passengers as of October 6, 2026, despite describing the October 7 Hamas massacre, which killed 1,200 people and saw babies taken hostage, as “resistance by brave people.”
Live and Let’s Fly reported on October 3 that he had returned to the cockpit as the captain.
Long. Who said what can be read at the link. Some honest, heartfelt sympathy and rage, lots of hypocrisy from those who love dead Jews, but don’t care much about the living ones.
[IsraelTimes] Trump says he spoke to Netanyahu, ‘other side paying a very big price’ for massacre; Macron calls assault ‘barbaric’ as French FM visits Israel to commemorate victims, hostages.
[IsraelTimes] US disputes claim, says terror group ‘trying to save face’ with claims about help from Tehran; Hezbollah reportedly seeking to reestablish presence in south Lebanon pilot zones
Hezbollah has received $200 million from Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... to help Lebanese displaced by this year’s war with Israel, two people with direct knowledge of the transfer said, in what would be the first significant aid from the terror group to supporters who bore the brunt of the conflict.
The US disputed the claim. US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement that the money "is not there," accusing Hezbollah of "trying to save face with fake stories about cash influxes from Iran."
The sources said Hezbollah received the cash last month despite a tightening US economic chokehold on Iran and increasing difficulties in getting funds to Tehran’s Lebanese ally.
Intermediaries who moved the money charged a 20% fee, reflecting the risks of dealing with the group, they said. One said this was four times the normal fee.
Asked for comment, a Hezbollah official said an amount had been secured, and a plan for distributing it would be announced in the coming days, without elaborating on the source of the funds.
The Iranian foreign ministry, Iran’s permanent mission in Geneva, and the Lebanese government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hezbollah attacked Israel in early March in support of its patron Iran, as it faced an Israeli-American assault. Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of southern Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... uprooted hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah’s Shi’ite Moslem constituents.
But those displaced have so far received little to no assistance from the terror group, founded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1982, which has suffered heavy Israeli blows after sparking two wars since 2023.
The State Department’s Pigott said Hezbollah had caused misery for Lebanese and had itself been decimated, while its backer Tehran was suffering under a US blockade of oil exports. "The United States will continue to strangle Hezbollah’s finances through sanctions while supporting the ability of Lebanon’s legitimate government to rebuild the South," Pigott said.
AIDING 50,000 FAMILIES
Hezbollah would use the funds to pay an initial $3,000 per family, and priority would go to those whose villages had been destroyed or were inaccessible due to Israeli forces’ presence, the sources said. These number around 50,000 families, one of the sources said.
Iran has maintained financial support for Hezbollah through years of crippling US sanctions: it transferred $1 billion to the group in the first 10 months of 2025, according to the US Treasury Department.
Tehran has never acknowledged financing Hezbollah. Iran’s policy of funding regional proxies has stirred domestic anger against the holy manal rulers in the past and could prove particularly sensitive at a time of worsening hardship in Iran.
Iran had promised Hezbollah more funding after Tehran signed an interim deal with Washington in June that allowed Iran to sell its oil, Rooters reported at the time. That agreement collapsed in July.
Washington has since intensified economic pressure on Iran, tightening sanctions and imposing a naval blockade to block Iranian oil exports.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... said in a speech last month that the group would soon contribute to a project aimed at housing thousands of people displaced by the war, using "available resources and donations," without elaborating.
Hezbollah’s ability to fund local services and provide post-conflict aid has helped shore up its support in the past. Following a war with Israel in 2006, the group immediately handed out large cash payments to those impacted and moved swiftly to help rebuild its stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
But this time there has been little sign of reconstruction. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said last month that the total reconstruction costs from the two wars since 2024 could exceed $27 billion.
A COSTLY WAR
The two sources provided no details on how the money got to Lebanon.
One of them said it was increasingly difficult for Hezbollah to move funds via financial companies that once processed such transfers. Such firms based in Iraq and Dubai were no longer an option, and they were also now under pressure in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , the source said.
Hezbollah’s foes believed money was currently the group’s "oxygen," the source added. Despite the difficulties securing funding, the terror group had not stopped paying its fighters and the family members of those killed in combat, the source said.
In Lebanon, the war has inflicted a heavy price on the Shi’ite Moslem community from which Hezbollah draws support. Israel has razed villages across a swath of territory it has seized in the south, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks.
HEZBOLLAH SAID SEEKING TO REESTABLISH PRESENCE IN SOUTHERN LEBANON PILOT ZONES
Hezbollah is also carrying out limited activity in southern Lebanon’s three pilot zones after the IDF withdrew and allowed the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to deploy there, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Wednesday.
Israeli troops began withdrawing from the pilot zones in July under a US-brokered plan, which envisioned Lebanese army troops confiscating weapons from Hezbollah in parts of southern Lebanon and phased withdrawals of Israeli troops, who are eventually meant to leave Lebanon.
Hezbollah, which was forced north of the Litani River, is now reportedly seeking to reestablish its presence in the towns of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, Froun and Srifa, using local actors and gathering intelligence.
A Lebanese political figure opposed to Hezbollah told Kan that the government is failing to do its job, adding that disarming the group is at least as critical as Israel’s withdrawal.
"If Hezbollah enters every place Israel leaves, that is also a critical point," he said.
The IDF did not immediately comment on the report.
Separately, the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Interim Force in Lebanon said one of its posts was targeted on Wednesday near the border with Israel by small-arms fire, but there were no casualties.
"This morning, several rounds of small arms fire impacted a UNIFIL position near Kfar Shouba along the Blue Line in Sector East," the UN force said in a statement, referring to the de facto border between Israel and Lebanon.
The blue helmets described the shooting as "unacceptable."
"Such deliberate attacks gravely endanger the lives of peacekeepers," it said, adding that it was investigating the incident.
UNIFIL did not say who it suspects of targeting the post. The IDF did not issue any immediate comment on the claim.
Under US pressure, the UN Security Council decided in August to fix December as the end of the mandate for UNIFIL, which has been deployed since 1978.
Last month, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam insisted at the UN on the need to "avert the vacuum" that would be caused by withdrawing the peacekeeping mission deployed in the country’s south without a viable replacement.
UNIFIL currently has 7,500 blue helmets from around 50 countries.
Israel has long argued that the observer force has failed in its mission, doing little to block Hezbollah from building up its forces near the Israeli border over the decades.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 4,300 people since March 2, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The Israeli military has said that it has killed over 2,500 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since early March.
Forty IDF soldiers and one Defense Ministry civilian contractor have been killed in southern Lebanon in the same period. Two civilians were also killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.
[Rudaw] Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Wednesday cited “serious and urgent measures” to improve the needs of law enforcement personnel and prioritize Tehran’s "economic resilience" amid fears of brewing nationwide unrest it attributes to US instigation.
Iran’s Law Enforcement Command (FARAJA) played a major role in the crackdown on activists, members of civil society, and demonstrators during the early January 2026 nationwide protests and “Woman Life Freedom” movement of 2022, in which human rights groups documented thousands of protestors killed by Iranian security forces.
Speaking at a meeting with the commander and members of FARAJA, Ghalibaf said the United States was exploiting economic gateways and "disrupting internal security" in the face of Iran’s military deterrents, according to Iranian outlet Entekhab.
Ghalibaf affirmed Tehran’s “main priority … to try to improve economic resilience and ensure internal security,” calling for “serious and urgent measures to meet the needs of FARAJA personnel in various infrastructural, economic, and livelihood areas,” following US “pressure on the economic sphere.”
Nationwide protests in Iran began in late December 2025 and escalated through January 2026, initially triggered by worsening economic conditions and a sharp devaluation of Iran's currency before turning into broader calls for political change.
Iranian security forces, including FARAJA, were deployed to the streets and responded with lethal weapons, killing at least 3,356 protesters and bystanders on January 8 and 9 alone, according to a recent report by Iran Human Rights (IHR). Estimates of the death toll vary widely, ranging from 15,000 according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which has verified at least 7,000 cases, to 52,000 according to US President Donald Trump.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/08/2026 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
BREAKING: Israel says pilot tried to hijack flydubai flight to Tel Aviv that diverted, landed in Saudi Arabia
