[FoxNews] Authorities seized a cache of 34 illegal guns allegedly belonging to the suspected gang
Ten alleged members and associates of the bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) have been indicted in a massive arms and drugs-running operation spanning at least six states and prosecutors said they had plans to expand on an international level to Colombia.
In New York City on Wednesday, police said that one of the accused violent migrant gangbangers broke an NYPD officer’s arm after he got into a scuffle during his arrest.
Authorities seized a cache of 34 illegal guns, including AR-15 assault rifles and a Glock 9mm with a trigger modification making it an automatic, tied to the suspects, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Katz said the TDA gang members were also peddling deadly drugs including pink cocaine, a designer street drug that includes a mixture of ketamine, MDMA and ecstasy.
All ten are migrants – including two women – are from Venezuela and entered the country illegally via the southern border, police said.
This subset of the gang was spearheaded by two Venezuelan nationals who came to New York City two years ago and established a gun-running crew that was also comprised of other foreign nationals.
Enyerbert Blanco, 24, the alleged ringleader, has been in custody in Florida since October after being charged in connection with a human trafficking case involving a 15-year-old girl, Katz said.
"We allege that as members and associates, they trafficked weapons and made money in furtherance of TdA’s agenda and as they seek to establish themselves in New York City, we are individually dismantling them," Katz said.
Katz said the investigation, dubbed Operation Train Derail, began more than a year ago and was carried out by her office and the NYPD.
Five of the 10 are charged with two counts of criminal sale of a firearm and face up to 25 years in jail if they are convicted.
The remainder are variously indicted on firearm possession charges and other crimes. They face a maximum of 15 years in prison. All ten of them are charged with conspiracy to possess and sell illegal firearms in New York City.
Four are now in custody in New York City, while four others are behind bars outside the state, including two in Texas and two in Florida. The others are still on the loose. Their illicit operation also spanned Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Colorado, Katz said.
Katz didn’t say whether ICE would be deporting the suspects, insisting she was treating the operation as a gun-running case.
[FoxNews] A Guatemalan man was pulled over for speeding in Tennessee before the pursuit began.
An illegal immigrant from Guatemala is accused of firing at a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper multiple times after a traffic stop turned into a dangerous pursuit, according to court documents.
Tennessee authorities initially pulled Eugenio Abraham Solis Klarks over Jan. 12 around 6:30 p.m. in Lenoir City for speeding and asked if he had any ID. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Fox News Digital the suspect was living illegally in the United States from Guatemala.
Upon being pulled over, Klarks allegedly presented a Guatemalan consular ID card. And when authorities began to issue a citation, he apparently fled, "leading officers on a high-speed pursuit into Knox County," court records state.
"The Defendant eventually lost control of his vehicle on Watt Road. When the first trooper approached his vehicle, the Defendant exited the vehicle holding an assault rifle, raised the weapon, and aimed at the trooper," court documents state. "The defendant was struck during the exchange of gunfire. Multiple firearms were recovered from the Defendant's vehicle."
Klarks' vehicle was apparently spotted in Macon, Georgia, and Indianapolis before the shooting.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has since filed an immigration detainer against the suspect, who is in custody at the Knox County Jail. He is charged with evading arrest but may be facing more charges in the future.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and other Republican state politicians are considering a bill that would establish a "centralized immigration enforcement division" within the state's Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security to crack down on illegal immigration and crimes like the Jan. 12 shooting.
The bill is part of the governor's immigration agenda that the Tennessee legislature will consider during a special session this week.
[Garowe] Security forces in Somalia's northeastern state of Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... initiated a crackdown against undocumented foreigners, most of them who are believed to be fighting for the IS-Somalia faction, whose presence in the Bari region has stirred insecurity concerns.
On Sunday, the forces captured eight fighters allied to ISIS in the state, with six of them believed to be imported muscle. For the last two weeks, Puntland forces have liberated strategic locations within the Bari region, as the operation gets into the final stretch.
In Bosaso, the capital of the Bari region, the number of detainees has reached 300, most of whom are foreigners, and investigations are underway. The security operation is ongoing in the city, with an active contribution from the public, who are reporting individuals they suspect.
The Ministry of Interior has issued a directive targeting undocumented foreigners, with illegal immigrants colonists banned from accessing the state. The IS-Somalia bully boyz are accused of destabilizing the northern state.
Among the entities targeted in the crackdown include telecommunications with all service providers cautioned against issuance of SIM cards to people without identification documents. Unregistered SIM cards will be deactivated, the ministry said.
The crackdown also targets drifters, who are now barred from occupying public spaces such as mosques, streets, and commercial centers. Also, foreigners running small businesses in Puntland have been put on notice, with those without proper registration asked to follow protocols.
A total of 15 bully boyz have been killed in Bari region with several drones also recovered in the processes. A Yemini national is among those killed last week after he was caught planting an Improvised Explosive Device, targeting Security forces.
Recently, the State Department published a report in which ISIS bully boyz in Somalia were termed as 'dangerous and well organized". The US warned that if actions are not taken, the group’s influence could escalate, further fuelling insecurity in northern Somalia.
Puntland is one of the safest states in Somalia, with minimal presence of terror groups. In southern regions, al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... dominates in most of the states, with the government struggling to secure strategic towns, even with the help of foreign forces.
[IsraelTimes] Australian city’s Jewish community on edge after police — who kept the incident secret until it was leaked — say they’re probing possible connections to recent antisemitic attacks
Police in Sydney found a trailer containing explosives, with "some indication" it may have been intended to blow up a synagogue, Australian media reported on Wednesday.
The trailer was discovered on January 19 in Dural, a suburb some 36 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of the center of Sydney, New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson said.
"That caravan contained an amount of explosives and some indication that those explosives might be used in some form of antisemitic attack," he told a news conference.
"Investigations over the last ten days have progressed — however, there is a lot to do," he said, explaining police have made "made arrests on the periphery of this job."
Hudson did not disclose how many arrests were made or what the charges were, if any.
He did say, however, that police "believe there is some connection between some of the targets we’ve charged under Strike Force Pearl" — the NSW initiative, launched last month, to address antisemitic hate crimes — "and this particular investigation."
"We are still looking for assistance in relation to anyone who saw that caravan parked on the road from December 7," Hudson said, noting it "was parked in a hazardous position prior to it being moved by a local resident."
Addressing concern in the community about potential attacks, the deputy police commissioner said, "We believe that we have contained, appropriately, this current threat."
New South Wales police kept the discovery secret for nine days before it was leaked to the media.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said over 100 officers were investigating the incident, under a joint counter-terrorism operation involving state and federal police.
"This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event. There is only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism," he said.
PUB FIRES TRIVIA HOST AFTER NAZI JOKES, ’ZIONIST’ COMMENTS
Also this week, a Sydney pub fired a trivia host, after he made a series of offensive Nazi jokes and then responded by mocking a Jewish couple that complained and lashed out online against "Zionists."
During a trivia night last Wednesday at the Iron Duke Hotel, Jarred Keane also reportedly performed a Nazi salute.
The jokes were prompted by a question — it was not clear from the report who posed it — about billionaire Elon Musk’s Nazi-salute-like gesture at US President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... ’s inauguration earlier this month, according to Sky News.
One attendee, Jonathan Sankey, grandson of Auschwitz survivor and Sydney Jewish Museum founding member Olga Horak, recorded part of the event, and later confronted Keane about the jokes. In audio of the confrontation, the comedian is heard apologizing.
Keane later took to Instagram, however, and ridiculed the complaint, saying, "I was like, ’yeah, I know. The Nazis are bad. Like, I’m not saying they’re good," but "these guys are, like, in their twenties. I’m like, oh I’m sorry I brought up something that happened to your great-grandparents."
Jarred Keane is a wannabe comedian. He thinks it's funny to laugh at the Holocaust. He thinks the horrors of six million civilians being shot, gassed, tortured and dehumanised is a joke.
In another video, Keane ranted against "Zionists," calling them "disgusting people" who are "not welcome" at his events, and used explicit language to describe them. He further claimed that his trivia nights were fun "unless you’re a conservative or a Zionist" and accused Israel of genocide.
Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected allegations of genocide during its war against the Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... terror group in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... The Iron Duke Hotel confirmed Keane had been dismissed and distanced itself from his statements, saying in a letter shared with Sky News that "the hotel does not share the views expressed by Jarred on social media" and "disapprove[s] of Jarred’s use of the topic of Nazism... to evoke humour, in light of current domestic and international events."
SURGE IN ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS
Australia has seen a surge in antisemitic activities since the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which started the war in Gaza.
The number of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia quadrupled in the year after the attack, according to data from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
These have included several arson attacks on synagogues and community centers in Sydney and Melbourne and the repeated spraying of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel graffiti on properties or vehicles in areas with large Jewish populations. Last month also saw a neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... rally at the Melbourne parliament.
In December 2024, New South Wales launched Strike Force Pearl, whose team includes counter-terrorism and special tactics officers, to investigate antisemitic hate crimes in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, following an arson attack on the Adass Synagogue.
Australia’s federal police also launched Operation Avalite to investigate the surge in antisemitic crimes that has followed the Hamas attack in Israel.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to adopt tougher measures to protect the country’s Jewish community, but there has been no noticeable decline in incidents yet.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] An anti-Islam activist who sparked outrage across Muslim countries for burning the Koran has been shot dead in Sweden during a livestream on TikTok. Salwan Momika, 38, was ruthlessly gunned down in an apartment in the city of Sodertalje on Wednesday night.
Swedish media reported that Momika was streaming live on TikTok at the time he was shot. A video seen by MailOnline showed police picking up a phone and ending a livestream that appeared to be from Momika's TikTok account.
The Iraqi refugee was notorious for staging public demonstrations where he burnt and destroyed the Islamic holy book - a stunt that enraged Muslims around the world.
A Stockholm court was due to rule on Thursday whether Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Korans at a slew of protest in 2023, and his co-protester Salwan Najem, were guilty of inciting ethnic hatred. According to the charge sheet, the duo had desecrated and burned the Koran and had also made derogatory remarks about Muslims.
It postponed the ruling to February 3, saying that 'because Salwan Momika has died, more time is needed'.
Najem tweeted this morning: 'I'm next'.
Police said they rushed to the scene, where they found Momika suffering from gun wounds. He was rushed to hospital and was later confirmed dead.
Tabloid Aftonbladet reported that the shooter was able to enter the building through the roof.
Five people have been arrested in connection to Momika's death, police said on their website. They did not say if the shooter was among those detained.
Momika first sparked global anger in June 2023 when he set a Koran on fire and stomped on the holy book outside Stockholm's main mosque, with several Muslim countries condemning Sweden for allowing the Iraqi man to perform the act during the Eid al-Adha holiday and the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Burning the Koran is seen by Muslims as a blasphemous act because they consider it the literal word of God.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE joined in the chorus of condemnation, with the US also calling the protest 'disrespectful and hurtful'.
Dozens of Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in response to Momika's stunt, with videos showing an angry mob breaking through an iron gate and climbing on top of the compound.
The demonstrators also distributed leaflets that carried messages in Arabic and English that said: 'Our constitution is the Koran. Our leader is Al-Sadr'.
'Yes, yes to the Koran,' was also scrawled on the gate leading to the embassy, according to the photographer.
Momika later pulled a similar stunt, in which he burned the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
The activist received a string of death threats as a result.
for muslim mums who have considered leaving when the ummah ain't enuf
Transitioning Muslims, rejoice!
You're stunning and brave, so give voice
To your need to be free
From Mohammedan Me,
And remember: "My Book and my Choice!"
Private property. ["A Koran of their own!" "To love as they please!"] Reproductive freedom. Love marriage,,, for adults, even. Shirkers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your isnads!
"Mohammedans -- may I be blunt? --
Are My whole that is not in the front,
So dark even China
At midnight is finer,
So stupid..." [sets fire to their stunt]
#8
Be nervous about that last one if I weren't already dead. ;)
Anyway, having read the article... alternate headline:
Sabrina "the cunning 'STUNT'" Penty, Mail news hound who's just about twenty,
Caught scratching the itch,
That Mohammedan witch,
Of her grooming gang Paks, but got PLENTY!
Seriously, unbribed scribe? "Stunt" times three? What, then, shall we call the hidebound institutionalized solicitation of premeditated jabbery and stabbery over many centuries by a billion or two mischievous Mohammedans?
[PJMEDIA] The Portland police chief is brazenly defying federal authorities and refusing to cooperate with Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... and Tom Homan's plan for deporting illegal alien criminals. Sounds as if it's time for the feds to investigate and perhaps arrest the police chief.
Portland police chief Bob Day issued a community letter on Jan. 28, proudly affirming Portland's unconstitutional sanctuary city policies, announcing his determination to flout federal law enforcement arresting criminal illegal aliens, and therefore publicizing as much as possible his corruption and illegal activities. Considering that ICE is currently focused on deporting the most dangerous illegal alien criminals, including murderers and child rapists, this begs the question why Day is so desperate to protect such evil people.
Day began by announcing he was communicating with ''culturally specific advisory councils that represent many of our immigrant families.'' Woke alert! Completely ignoring the American citizens who have been robbed, harassed, raped, killed, or put out of work by illegal aliens, whom we fund with our taxpayer dollars, he expressed all his sympathy for those illegals.
''It is paramount to recognize the fear and uncertainty this creates in our immigrant communities,'' he pontificated. ''I want everyone to feel safe and protected, which is why it is important to understand that the Portland Police Bureau does not engage in immigration enforcement as outlined in PPB Directive 810.10. Simply put, we have no legal authority to do so.''
That’s nice, dear. That just means your nearby ordinary illegals will be picked up along with the DHS targets. But it’s your choice — and there’s always the thrill of wondering whether Border Czar Tom Homan really will prosecute, as he’s threatened…
[FoxNews] Over 1,200 illegal immigrants charged with crimes have been detained by federal officers.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced Tuesday that he would not cooperate with federal law enforcement officers on deportations of illegal immigrants.
Over the first weekend of President Donald Trump’s second term, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and their partners conducted nationwide roundups of more than 1,200 illegal immigrants who were charged with or convicted of committing crimes on American soil.
"I want to speak directly to people who are undocumented: we love you. We care about you," Frey, a Democrat, said at a press conference. "In the city of Minneapolis, we will stand up for you and we will do anything in our power to help because you're not an alien; in our city, you're a neighbor."
"Now, in Minneapolis we have what is called a separation ordinance," Frey continued, explaining his legal strategy to avoid deportations. "And that separation ordinance states clearly that our city officials, our police officers and beyond will not be gathering information showing who is and is not documented."
"We do not ask the question with regards to immigration status and, because we haven't asked the question, we don't have any data to show documentation status in our city," the mayor said.
"Our police officers will not be cooperating with federal law enforcement around federal immigration law. We enforce state and local laws here in Minneapolis, and we will do so to the best of our ability. But as for cooperation with ICE, the answer is no," Frey said.
#2
Make him put it in writing, which is evidence at a later trial! Blowhards like him will say anything but tend to fold like wet paper when they have to do anything.
[IsraelTimes] Protesters outside Oheb Shalom congregation call passersby ‘baby killers,’ spray-paint ‘Terrorists This Way’; officials line up to condemn act
Anti-Israel protesters graffitied the property of a New Jersey synagogue on Sunday that was hosting a talk by an Israeli soldier, drawing condemnation from local officials.
On Sunday morning, anti-Israel demonstrators gathered in front of Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange, New Jersey, to protest a talk by members of the Israeli Air Force’s search-and-rescue unit.
According to a statement by South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum, the protesters graffitied the driveway with the phrase "Terrorists This Way," and drew an arrow that pointed toward the synagogue.
Rabbi Abigail Treu, who leads the Conservative congregation, wrote in a statement that protesters called passersby "baby killers." She wrote that a neighbor had cleaned off the graffiti and thanked police for their response.
Collum wrote that police are investigating the incident as a bias crime.
"This act of intolerance is deeply disturbing and has no place in our community," the mayor wrote. "We must come together, united in our commitment to stand against hate, bigotry, and discrimination in all forms. This is not just an attack on one group; it is an attack on the values that bind us all as neighbors."
South Orange, NJ — vile antisemites are harassing members of Oheb Shalom synagogue during Hebrew School hours, yelling at parents that they are raising baby killers.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who represents the area, also condemned the incident.
"Although we must ensure space for First Amendment activities, going onto private property and spray painting "murderous Moslems this way" is not only a crime, but is contrary to the values we share as a diverse community," she wrote. "We should all work together to make sure people are allowed to worship without fear."
In her statement, the rabbi said that the search-and-rescue unit had rescued civilians around the world, including in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... . She added that the synagogue works to create space for a range of perspectives, including on Israel.
"People who stand outside our building, calling us terrorists, making us feel threatened or on the defensive as we undertake the peaceful work of joining in local community, do not have a place here," she wrote. "Not at Oheb, and I know not at our neighboring synagogue partners, either. Our tent is a large one, but it has walls."
[CBSNEWS] A 911 call led Coral Gables police to intercept two vans transporting 26 migrants colonists Tuesday morning in what authorities believe is the second human smuggling operation within city limits in less than two weeks.
Two alleged smugglers, along with 26 Chinese migrants colonists — nine women and 17 men — were taken into custody, Coral Gables Police Chief Edward James Hudak Jr. said in a presser.
"We believe they came by boat, they came through a secluded area in the southern end of Coral Gables," Hudak Jr. said. "They're coming up through a canal area that leads to a private marina."
The alleged smugglers were of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent and were carrying a firearm, police said.
According to Coral Gables Police, the incident took place at approximately 8:03 a.m. near Old Cutler Road and SW 120th St., when authorities received a 911 call about two white vans possibly transporting migrants colonists.
The 26 Chinese migrants colonists were allegedly discovered while traveling in the vans, with each vehicle carrying 13 migrants colonists, police said. The migrants colonists were later loaded onto county trolleys by federal agents, aerial images showed.
Hudak Jr. said they believe this was a smuggling operation and not a human trafficking case.
"There was documentation, there was currency, this is not something where people were against their will," Hudak Jr. said. "There was also evidence impounded, including a firearm that is being processed and will be turned over to HSI. We are very concerned that a firearm was recovered because, in the end, we are concerned about our officers' safety and the public's safety."
[IsraelTimes] Israel has yet to name the 110 prisoners who will be freed in return for 3 female hostages, though public broadcaster says 33 of them are serving life terms for deadly attacks
Israel is expected to free a number of high-profile turbans in exchange for the three Israeli hostages slated for release on Thursday — Arbel Yehoud, Agam Berger, and Gadi Mozes.
Among the 110 prisoners to be released are prominent terror convicts Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud Atallah and Ahmed Barghouti, according to multiple media reports.
Zubeidi, who will return home to the West Bank, organized dozens of attacks during the Second Intifada while heading the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades in Jenin. He was one of six prisoners who briefly beat feet from Gilboa prison in 2021, before being recaptured.
Atallah, who is serving a life sentence for murdering a Paleostinian woman suspected of collaborating with Israel, will be released to Nablus. He was indicted last September for repeatedly sexually assaulting female guards at Gilboa Prison.
Barghouti, a senior military official in Fatah, received 13 life sentences for carrying out a series of terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed 12 Israelis. He will be deported abroad via Egypt.
Authorities have yet to give official information on the prisoners to be set freed on Thursday and Saturday, though the Kan public broadcaster said 33 of them are serving life terms for deadly attacks, 47 are serving long prison terms, and the remaining 30 are women and minors.
The Haaretz daily reported that among the other prisoners set to be released are Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... operative Mohammed Abu Warda, who is serving 48 life sentences for criminal masterminding multiple terror attacks, including a 1996 bombing on a bus in Jerusalem that killed 45 people; and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... member Sami Jaradat, who was responsible for a 2003 bombing at a restaurant in Haifa that killed 21 people.
Both Abu Warda and Jaradat are expected to be sent to the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip or Egypt.
The newspaper said that Ammar Mardi, a Jordanian member of Fatah involved in the 2001 killing of Yuri Gushchin near Ramallah, will be freed after refusing to board a bus to Gaza during the release of prisoners last weekend, though it remains unclear where he will go.
According to an Israel Prisons Service spokesperson, the prisoners will be transported to two main reception points, Ofer and Ktzi’ot prisons, before being released home or deported.
After the three Israeli hostages are confirmed to have returned, prisoners headed for the West Bank will be escorted by the Red Thingy to a release point, and those being deported or released into Gaza will be escorted by the special Prison Service units to the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
No prisoners will be exchanged for the five Thai hostages who are also due to be freed, since they are being released under a separate agreement between Hamas and Thailand.
Thursday’s exchange is part of the first phase of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas that took effect on January 19, under which 50 prisoners are released for every soldier and 30 for each civilian. Israel freed 90 prisoners in return for three civilian hostages early last week, followed by 200 additional inmates — including 121 serving life sentences for terrorism — in exchange for four female soldiers on Saturday.
During the 42-day period, 33 Israeli captives held in Gaza are expected to be released in return for 1,904 Paleostinian security prisoners, including 737 serving life terms. The other 1,167 are Paleostinians detained during the IDF’s ground offensive who did not participate in the Hamas-led October 7 massacre that started the Gaza war.
Talks have yet to begin on the deal’s second stage, in which Hamas is expected to release young, relatively healthy male hostages, including soldiers, for whom the terrorist organization is likely to demand Israel pay a heavier price.
*UPDATE*
BREAKING: Israel ordered the buses carrying the released terrorists from today’s exchange to turn around and get back to prison.
The move is in response to the savage images from the release of the hostages that were nearly lynched by those monsters.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas denounces drone attack in town of Tamun, which comes amid major Israeli counterterrorism operation in the area
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday evening carried out a dronezap in the northern West Bank, with the Paleostinian Authority reporting at least 10 people were killed.
The strike in the town of Tamun targeted a cell of armed terror operatives, according to the military, which said it would later provide further details.
Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... issued a statement condemning the strike, which came amid a major counterterrorism offensive in the northern West Bank that Israel launched amid the hostage release and ceasefire deal with the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... -ruling terror group.
"The escalating crimes of the fascist ...anybody you disagree with, damn them... occupation in the West Bank and its continued policy of liquidations against our heroic resistance fighters and mujahideen... are a reaffirmation of the occupation’s criminal approach against our people and a failed attempt ...Curses! Foiled again!... to break our valiant resistance," said Hamas.
The ongoing IDF offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, has primarily focused on the city and refugee camp of Jenin but on Monday expanded to Tulkarem.
Visiting Jenin earlier Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed the IDF would remain in the camp even after the military operation there, "to ensure the terror does not return." His visit came hours after the PA health ministry reported two Paleostinians were killed there overnight by Israeli forces.
[JustTheNews] The executive order explicitly notes that the policy aims to achieve what was left unfinished by Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative that critics dubbed Star Wars.
Just hours after Pete Hegseth was sworn in as the country's Defense secretary, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to begin the process of implementing a “next-generation missile defense” system for the U.S. aiming to complete the comprehensive project originally envisioned by President Reagan at the height of the Cold War.
Trump dubbed the missile defense system – which the order says would be designed to protect the U.S. homeland from ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other new aerial threats – the "U.S. Iron Dome" after the highly successful Israeli conventional missile defense system.
The executive order explicitly notes that the policy aims to achieve what was left unfinished by Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative – which critics dubbed "Star Wars" after the 1977 pop-culture film of that name – which endeavored to create a space-based defense shield against Soviet missiles. Ultimately the intuitive fizzled out as scientists estimated the technology wouldn’t be ready for decades and the end of the Cold War reduced the urgency of the threat.
But now, the old Soviet Union superpower has been replaced by China and Russia, which possess sizable nuclear arsenals and are currently in stiff competition with the United States.
The Trump administration in the order specifically identified the threats from these “peer and near-peer adversaries” as the primary driver of a comprehensive missile defense system, which marks a major shift in policy documents from the first Trump, then Biden administration, which focused on using missile defense technologies to prevent attacks from smaller threats, namely North Korea and Iran.
“The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States,” the executive order reads.
It continues, “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities.”
The shift to focus on the nuclear threats posed by China and Russia comes as both countries have developed more advanced weapons and have expanded their arsenals while also becoming close partners. This presents a hard problem for the U.S. to solve with the traditional nuclear deterrence doctrine that endured until the previous Biden administration.
“During the Cold War the United States had one nuclear peer to deter, the United States now faces two – Russia and China. This is a much harder problem and the United States has to make big adaptations to the programs we have to deter both countries simultaneously,” Rebeccah Heinrichs, senior fellow and director of the Keystone Defense Initiative at the Hudson Institute, told Just the News.
“We must outsmart and out-innovate China in particular and no area is more important than in the protection of the American homeland. Both of those actors, plus North Korea (and Iran is a threshold nuclear state with a space launch program that could be leveraged for a long-range missile program) could coerce the United States with ballistic or cruise missiles if they believe the United States is vulnerable to them,” Heinrichs also said.
She continued, “By building a layered homeland missile defense system, the United States complicates the adversaries’ calculations and makes it harder for them to plan an attack on the United States with even a handful of missiles.”
President Trump, appearing to recognize the need for modernization and new ways of deterring attacks from adversaries, directs the Pentagon in the executive order to develop a plan within 60 days for implementing the “next-generation missile shield.”
The requirements outlined by the executive order are sweeping.
The plans are to include defense-against-missile systems, the deployment of tracking lasers, development of space-based interceptors, development of new methods to intercept threats pre-launch and securing the supply chains for these new defense systems.
This marks a major shift from the policy of the Biden administration, which in its 2022 National Defense Strategy unequivocally stated that the United States' existing missile defense systems “neither intended for, nor capable of, defeating large and sophisticated ICBM, air-, or sea-launched ballistic missile threats from Russia and the PRC.”
[IsraelTimes] No immediate comment from military; Beirut says 24 killed in Israeli strike Tuesday targeting what IDF said were Hezbollah vehicles moving weapons in violation of truce
Five people were maimed in an Israeli dronezap in the southern Lebanese town of Majdal Selm on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The Israel Defense Forces had no immediate comment on the matter.
In a separate Israeli Air Force strike Tuesday night, the IDF targeted what it said were vehicles belonging to the Hezbollah terror group that were being used to transfer weapons near southern Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... ’s Nabatieh, which would constitute a ceasefire violation on the part of the terror group.
The Lebanese health ministry said 24 people were maimed in that strike, which came amid IDF warnings against civilians returning to villages in southern Lebanon, where Israel has said it will remain until February 18.
Israel had been due to withdraw by January 26, but said it could not do so as the Lebanese army had not yet deployed in those areas, and the US and Lebanon announced Sunday that the deadline had been extended.
Following the Tuesday strike, senior Hezbollah official Mohammad Raad said that the Lebanese people have a "sacred and legitimate right" to resist Israeli attacks, and said this right should be exercised at the time and place deemed necessary to protect the country’s security.
Under the November ceasefire brokered by the US, however, Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani River — some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel — while Israel is entitled to strike threats it considers imminent, and to forward less imminent threats to a monitoring committee comprising representatives of Lebanon, Israel, La Belle France, the United States and UNIFIL.
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.
[FoxNews] A Guatemalan man was pulled over for speeding in Tennessee before the pursuit began.
... the personification of Somali state failure...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
[FoxNews] Over 1,200 illegal immigrants charged with crimes have been detained by federal officers.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
[JustTheNews] The executive order explicitly notes that the policy aims to achieve what was left unfinished by Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative that critics dubbed Star Wars.
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
