Category: The News And Times – thenewsandtimes.com

Multiple times in recent days, Israeli tanks and armored vehicles penetrated the Gaza Strip, engaged Hamas militants and hit select targets in preparation for an inevitable, full-scale ground invasion.

“We are preparing,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, ominously hinting at what is to come.  “I will not elaborate.”

Israel’s ally, the United States, has appeared steadfast in supporting Israel’s decision.

“They have a right and a responsibility to go after Hamas after what happened on October 7,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Thursday, noting the Hamas terror attacks that massacred 1,400 people, the vast majority civilians. 

The view is shared by multiple counterterrorism, intelligence and security officials, as well as by some experts, who argue there is a compelling case for Israel to take more drastic action to curtail the threat from Hamas — a U.S.-designated terror organization thought to command between 20,000 and 25,000 fighters as well as thousands more from other, smaller extremist groups in Gaza. 

These former officials, however, cautioned that even though a ground operation may be justified, it comes with significant risks — to Israel, to Israeli forces and especially to Palestinian civilians living under Hamas rule in Gaza. And some also note, while Israel appears set on this course, it is not the only option.

Israel’s air campaign 

The starting point for some of these former officials is Israel’s now three-week-old air campaign, in some cases carrying out as many as 250 airstrikes in a 24-hour period, against purported Hamas targets in Gaza.

The images of the aftermath of these strikes, including flattened neighborhoods, dead or wounded children and grieving families, are admittedly heart-wrenching, they say. But they also point out the Israeli air campaign has yet to stop Hamas from repeatedly launching rockets into Israel.

“You can see why they’re reluctant to leave it to airstrikes,” a former Western counterterrorism official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding the conflict.

“The airstrikes are insufficiently surgical,” the official added, arguing that from a counterterrorism viewpoint, the argument for Israel to agree to a cease-fire after airstrikes alone is weak.

“What you’re doing really is just inviting a return to the status quo and you may not do a great deal of damage to Hamas infrastructure because of a lot of it is hidden, a lot of it is underground,” the official said. 

“Have you inflicted enough pain to make it less likely that that same thing will happen again?” the official asked. “Airstrikes have not done the job in the past.” 

Daniel Hoffman, a retired U.S. clandestine services officer and former chief of station with the CIA, agreed.

“Israel tried that. They tried to degrade Hamas with an air campaign and deter Hamas, but deterrence failed,” he told VOA. 

“Israel’s concluded that they cannot allow Hamas to enjoy ungoverned space in Gaza to plot terrorist attacks, because they’ll do it,” Hoffman added. “So, Israel has to go and take the fight to the enemy, so to speak.”

Alternatives to ground incursion 

A former Israeli security official who spoke to VOA said that at one point, Israel could have considered other options.

One would have been to secure the country following the initial Hamas attack and then use the military to create a buffer zone inside Gaza. This option, the former official said, would have pushed Hamas fighters farther back from the border with Israel and given Israel time to seek the release of the approximately 200 hostages taken by Hamas militants.

Israel then could have taken its time, methodically hunting down Hamas leaders and commanders.

But the former Israeli official cautioned that the brutality of the Hamas attack could have made that approach politically untenable.

“Hamas doesn’t view this as another round … Hamas decided to go all in,” the former official said. “This is the ultimate attack that Hamas can do.”

“We have to get rid of Hamas,” the former official said. “If we don’t do it now, when will we?”

As for eliminating Hamas from the air alone, “we cannot just do this from bombing from the air unless we inflict much more civilian casualties,” the former official added.

Bloody battle

Already, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has blamed Israeli airstrikes for killing more than 7,000 people, including at least 2,900 children and 1,500 women. 

U.S. and Israeli officials have publicly challenged those numbers, with Israeli defense officials contending they are targeting only Hamas fighters, weapon stockpiles, infrastructure and military capabilities. No one, however, disputes that the overall civilian death toll among Palestinians in Gaza is likely in the thousands.

Even the former Israeli security official who said a ground incursion would allow Israeli forces to be more surgical in targeting Hamas than an even heavier bombing campaign admitted a ground operation would see the civilian death toll rise.

“Of course, it will be bloody. War is bloody,” the former official said, describing Hamas as “very disciplined.”

“They have built up their defenses very well and very deep,” the former Israeli official said. “They mastered the ability to put a lot of their infrastructure in places where they know there are civilians.”

The Israeli military has sought to back up those claims, sharing intelligence alleging to show how Hamas uses hospitals, including Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, as command-and-control centers for its attack on Israel.

Current and former Israeli officials say those command-and-control centers are connected to bunkers, built underneath schools and mosques, connected by hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, with entrances to the tunnel system placed in civilian homes.

The former Israeli security official said Israel, in the past, has tried to destroy some of the tunnels using so-called bunker buster bombs. But he said the impact was limited.

Not everyone accepts the Israeli claims about Hamas’ widespread use of civilians as human shields. 

“It’s preposterous,” said Tahani Mustafa, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Palestine.

“That has been debunked numerous times through numerous conflicts,” she told VOA in an interview shortly after Israel responded to the Hamas terror attack with the start of its air campaign. 

“They’re targeting everything, even buildings that host reputable media offices. They’re targeting UNWRA [U.N. Relief and Works Agency] facilities,” she said. “To claim that Hamas is using human shields, that’s implying that UNWRA was complicit in allowing Hamas to use its facilities.”

Israel’s claims, however, have been backed by the White House. 

And according to Hoffman, the former CIA official, high civilian death tolls will be a near certainty.

“That is going to be part of the war, because Hamas deliberately engages in military activity, whether it’s launching missiles or hiding themselves, in residential areas,” he said. “So, if you want to strike them, you’re going to run the risk of civilian casualties.”

Several of the former officials who spoke to VOA compared a ground incursion into Gaza to the nine-month-long battle by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State terror group that culminated in July 2017.

An Associated Press investigation found between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians were killed during that campaign, with at least one-third of the deaths caused by Iraqi or coalition forces.

Long-term impact 

And, in counterterrorism terms, high civilian death tolls come with other significant risks.

“Going house to house may be the only way to eliminate armed resistance to Israel,” said Katherine Zimmerman, a counterterrorism expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“But the question the Israelis must answer before any decision to conduct a ground operation is whether achieving certain conditions today — the elimination of Hamas —worsens conditions for the future whereby Israeli actions trigger radicalization within a next generation,” she told VOA.

Additionally, there are questions about whether Israel’s stated goal of eliminating Hamas as an entity capable of governing Gaza and waging war is even feasible.

“You talk about annihilation or whatever it is because it’s a good soundbite,” the former Western counterterrorism official told VOA. “But you can’t eliminate Hamas because Hamas is far too deeply ingrained.”

Other former officials told VOA that because Hamas is as much an idea as it is a terror group, a ground campaign against Hamas has to be just the start of Israeli efforts.

“You’ve got to drive a wedge between the irreconcilable Hamas terrorists and the regular folk,” said Hoffman. “This is going to be a counterinsurgency for a really long time.” 

(NewsNation) — Among some of the first drug seizures of the fiscal year at the Nogales, Arizona, port of entry along the southern border include 160,000 fentanyl pills and 14.6 pounds of fentanyl powder.

In a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Michael Humphries, Customs and Border Protection’s area port director for Nogales, said along with the fentanyl, 148.85 pounds of meth, 27.42 pounds of cocaine and 11.25 pounds of heroin were seized between Oct. 8 and Oct. 13.

Nogales has long been a hotspot for fentanyl seizures by law enforcement.

During the fiscal year 2023, which ran from Oct. 1 of last year through Sept. 30 of this year, more than 45 million fentanyl pills were seized by CBP Officers at the Nogales Port of Entry. Last October, around 2,260,100 total fentanyl pills were taken by Nogales border officials.

A little more than half, or 51.4%, of all fentanyl entering the United States comes through Arizona, with much of that coming from the southeast corner of the state. Drug Enforcement Agency data shows that in 2022, more than 20 million pills were seized in Maricopa County, which is about three and half hours north of the border — meaning the illicit drug was able to make it past multiple ports, checkpoints and other layers of law enforcement.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, and is a “major contributor” to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Biden administration earlier this year announced its plans to implement 123 new non-intrusive, large-scale inspection scanners at ports of entry along the southern border by 2026. Some on the frontlines who spoke to NewsNation, though, said it doesn’t matter how much technology is added to the ports — people will find a way to get fentanyl into the United States.

Israel is rejecting calls for respite in Gaza as its closest allies in the West have coalesced around the idea of “humanitarian pauses”, or temporary stops to the bombardment.

Growing international distress at the conditions for 2.3 million people trapped under the heaviest air strikes Israel has ever unleashed on the Mediterranean enclave led major powers this week to call on Israel to allow such pauses to get aid in and Israeli hostages held by Islamist militant group Hamas out.

The issue has opened the first public split between Israel and backers including the United States, the EU, UK and other G7 members such as Japan over the campaign after tight alignment and support in the nearly three weeks since Hamas militants burst from Gaza into southern Israel on a deadly rampage.

“Israel is opposed to a humanitarian pause or ceasefire at this time,” Lior Haiat, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Friday, while a senior Israeli official said calls for a pause in fighting appeared in “poor faith.”

The chorus of appeals for a pause followed days of intense diplomacy at U.N. headquarters in New York and in Brussels, and was a compromise between those, such as Spain, who wanted to push Israel to call a ceasefire, and those who say Israel’s right to self defence was foremost.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children and took more than 200 hostages in its Oct. 7 rampage.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said 7,326 Palestinians have died in retaliatory air strikes, including around 3,000 children. Supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine are scarce in the 40-km-long (25-mile-long) strip.

Efforts were under way bilaterally and at the U.N. to urge Israel to allow some form of pause, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters on Friday.

“I welcome the growing global consensus for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies at the scale needed,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Friday.

For the moment, a respite from the hostilities appears distant as Israel intensified ground and air operations on Friday.

U.S.-led discussions among Egypt, Israel and the U.N. on improving aid access through the Rafah border crossing were currently the main focus, one EU official said. A White House official confirmed the talks and said they also were seeking agreement by Israel to allow fuel vital for hospitals.

Agreement on these points could lead to more focus on lowering the violence in southern Gaza to let aid enter, the EU official said.

An average of 12 trucks a day have entered Gaza in recent days, down from 500 a day prior to the conflict, Guterres said on Friday.

Israel says any respite from fighting benefits Hamas, which it is determined to destroy, and which it says diverts aid such water, fuel, food and medicine to its fighters.

“A ceasefire means giving Hamas time to rearm itself, so they can massacre us again,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the General Assembly on Thursday, calling it “an attempt to tie Israel’s hands.”

A non-binding resolution at the U.N. General Assembly, drafted by Arab states and due to be voted on by all 193 member countries on Friday, calls for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”

Earlier on Friday, a Hamas official said the group, which has freed four captives so far, intended to release civilian Israeli hostages but made this contingent on a ceasefire.

Even among Israel’s allies, there is no consensus on what is meant by a humanitarian pause.

Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, senior fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, said agreement on the language did not mean implementation of a pause was imminent.

“Someone needs to act as a neutral intermediary to agree the precise modalities,” she said, noting this could be a U.N. agency, a player like the Red Cross or even a state.

She said “ceasefire” tends to refer to a general suspension of fighting while humanitarian pauses or corridors are more limited. They should be designed not to have any strategic impact on the conflict as a whole and be intended for a specific purpose, she said.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called a humanitarian pause “a temporary and local agreement to stop the fighting long enough to do some discrete task.”

He said the answer to how long and how geographically wide a pause would be was: “It depends”. He said multiple pauses over more than one day day might be needed. “If that’s what it requires, then we absolutely will try to get such pause or pauses in place.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the differences were semantic but: “What we want is to see the fighting stop so that humanitarian aid can get in.”

U.S. President Joe Biden met China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, holding an hour of talks that the White House characterized as a “good opportunity” in keeping lines of communication open between the two geopolitical rivals.

Wang earlier held a second day of meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the two countries seek to manage differences while laying groundwork for an expected summit between Biden and his counterpart Xi Jinping in November.

Biden still hopes to see Xi in the near future, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, but could not say whether an agreement was struck for the two presidents to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month in San Francisco.

China has yet to announce whether Xi will attend.

“The president has said that he fully expects to meet again with President Xi. These are two guys that have a long-standing relationship and we’re confident that that’s going to happen,” Kirby said.

“In his view, this was a positive development and a good opportunity to keep the conversation going,” Kirby said of Biden’s meeting with Wang, which Blinken and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also attended.

Wang arrived at the State Department late on Thursday – the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister to Washington during the Biden administration – and held a meeting with Blinken followed by a dinner. Sullivan was due to meet Wang separately on Friday afternoon.

On Thursday, Wang told Blinken that the two countries have disagreements and need “in-depth” and “comprehensive” dialogue to reduce misunderstandings and stabilize ties. “Not only should we resume dialogue, the dialogue should be in-depth and comprehensive,” Wang said.

Wang’s three-day visit follows a flurry of bilateral diplomatic engagements in recent months, largely at U.S. request, aimed at salvaging what were rapidly deteriorating ties early in the year following the U.S. downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

The U.S. sought to prevent relations, severely strained by intense economic competition and disagreements on a host of issues – including trade, Taiwan, human rights and the South China Sea – from veering into conflict.

But some in Washington have questioned whether a slate of mostly unreciprocated U.S. Cabinet-level official visits to Beijing over the past six months, including by Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, played into Beijing’s hand.

The trips by Yellen and Raimondo led to new bilateral economic and commercial working groups, which critics worry will only pull U.S. focus away from – and possibly delay – sanctions, export controls and broader measures intended to enhance U.S. competition with China.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has added a fresh dynamic to the testy relationship between the superpowers, and Washington is hoping Beijing can use its influence with Iran to prevent an escalation into a wider war in the Middle East.

Kirby said events in the Middle East were on the agenda in talks with Wang. He said the U.S. also raised concerns about the South China Sea, disputed waters where China and the Philippines have had several high-profile confrontations. Beijing says Washington has no right to get involved.

However, while both Beijing and Washington have spoken about looking for areas where they can work together, and Xi said on Wednesday that China was willing to cooperate on global challenges, experts do not expect immediate progress.

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, testifying in his own defense at his fraud trial on Friday, said a “lot of people got hurt” when the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed last year, but insisted he did not defraud anyone or steal billions of dollars from customers.

Bankman-Fried fielded questions from his own lawyer in his first day of testimony with jurors present, admitting to making “mistakes” such as not implementing a dedicated risk-management team. The 31-year-old former billionaire’s answers conformed to his longstanding argument that he overlooked some things as an entrepreneur building a fast-growing company from scratch but never set out to steal people’s money.

“We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market,” Bankman-Fried testified in Manhattan federal court. “It turned out basically the opposite of that. A lot of people got hurt – customers, employees – and the company ended up in bankruptcy.”

Bankman-Fried answered questions on Thursday without the jury present as the judge assessed what parts of his testimony would be admissible in the trial.

Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of using FTX customer funds to prop up his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, make speculative venture investments and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns. He also faces charges of scheming to cheat Alameda’s lenders and FTX investors.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. He was arrested in December 2022, one month after FTX declared bankruptcy following a wave of customer withdrawals. If convicted, he could face decades in prison.

Prosecutors have said he directed that Alameda be given special trading privileges on FTX, such as a $65 billion line of credit and an exemption from having its positions liquidated if it posted losses. They have said those privileges let Alameda siphon deposits from the exchange’s unsuspecting customers.

Responding to questions from defense attorney Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried occasionally looked toward the jury and spoke in calm, measured tones as he sought to reframe those actions as reasonable business decisions made in response to problems the exchange faced.

However, Bankman-Fried said he was not aware of how exactly his decisions as chief executive officer were carried out by his colleagues. Three close former colleagues have pleaded guilty and testified that they committed financial crimes at Bankman-Fried’s behest.

Prosecutors will be given their chance to cross-examine Bankman-Fried in front of the jury once the defense is finished questioning him. Prosecutor Danielle Sassoon objected several times that Bankman-Fried was veering off topic as he gave lengthy answers to Cohen’s questions.

Alameda, Bankman-Fried said, was a “market maker” that served to boost volume on FTX, and thus could borrow money from the exchange to make trades.

Bankman-Fried said he grew concerned about the potential for an “erroneous” liquidation of Alameda’s assets, which would be “catastrophic” for the exchange. He said he directed two FTX computer programmers, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, to implement a feature to prevent this from happening.

He said he asked them to build a feature that would stall any automatic liquidation, and said he did not know at the time that what his colleagues put in place was a feature that allowed Alameda to carry a negative balance on the exchange.

Prosecutors have said Bankman-Fried also stole funds by having customers at FTX, which initially lacked its own bank accounts, deposit their funds in accounts controlled by Alameda, which then lent money to Bankman-Fried and other executives.

Bankman-Fried told the jury he “wasn’t entirely sure what was happening” with those funds, but said he assumed that if Alameda borrowed from it, it would have been recorded on the fund’s FTX account.

Bankman-Fried testified that he relied on former friends and employees at FTX and Alameda who are now cooperating with prosecutors in his criminal case – Singh, Wang and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, his former girlfriend.

Bankman-Fried testified that Ellison was a good manager and trader, but not focused on “risk management,” and Wang was a friend who he “trusted and respected.” Bankman-Fried and Wang lived together in an alcohol-free, “nerdy” fraternity house at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the defendant said.

Bankman-Fried, who was jailed in August when U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan found he likely tampered with witnesses, presented a clean-cut look to the jury and was clad in a dark suit, a contrast to his trademark former casual look and mop of curly hair. He told jurors that he liked to wear shorts and T-shirts because they were “comfortable.”

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The latest mass shooting in the United States, which killed 18 people in Maine, prompted U.S. Representative Jared Golden, whose constituents died in the massacre, to reverse his opposition to a ban on assault-style weapons.

But his change of heart does not change the equation in Washington, where President Joe Biden’s push to reinstate a ban of such guns has been a non-starter for Republicans who control the House of Representatives and back gun rights.

Golden, a conservative Democrat who represents a district that supported then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, on Thursday said he had opposed a ban out of “false confidence” that his community was above such violence.

“The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by this sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my home town of Lewiston, Maine,” he said. “I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings.”

Biden said in a statement on Friday the nation was mourning “another senseless and tragic mass shooting” and urged Republicans to help pass a bill “banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers.”

Congressional aides said on Friday they knew of no new attempt to pass such a bill, which would need to pass the Republican-controlled House by a simple majority and win 60 votes in the 100-member Senate.

Mike Johnson, a Republican who took on the House’s top role of Speaker earlier this week, appeared to close the door on any effort.

“The problem is the human heart. It’s not guns. It’s not the weapons,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night when asked about calls for more legislation.

“We have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and that’s the Second Amendment. And that’s why our party stands so strongly for that. … This is not the time to be talking about legislation,” he said.

Democrats, with the support of anti-gun violence groups, have tried for years to renew a federal ban on assault-style weapons, which was first imposed in 1994 and expired in 2004.

The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms. Republicans, with the financial support of a powerful gun rights lobby, largely oppose restrictions on gun ownership.

Opinion polls show a majority of Americans favor tighter gun restrictions such as background checks and “red flag” laws, aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people believed to be a danger to themselves or others, but are more evenly split on assault-style rifle bans.

The U.S. has seen multiple massacres involving assault-style weapons in recent years. Biden, who is running for reelection in 2024, is expected to make proposals to tighten gun laws a key component of his campaign.

Last year, Congress passed the first significant gun control legislation in three decades. The bipartisan measure tightened background checks for would-be gun buyers convicted of domestic violence or significant crimes as juveniles.

It came as the U.S. Supreme Court broadly expanded gun rights by ruling Americans have a constitutional right to carry handguns in public for self-defense.

For any assault-style weapons ban to pass in the future, Democrats would need to win a majority in the 435-seat House and win more seats in the 100-member Senate, which they currently control 51-49.

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 On Twitter

@michaeldweiss: RT by @JuliaDavisNews: Naturally, the anti-Semitic Hezbollah fan @elonmusk boosted as a credible OSINT account is 18 years-old and lives in……

Naturally, the anti-Semitic Hezbollah fan @elonmusk boosted as a credible OSINT account is 18 years-old and lives in… London. https://t.co/hxc5ZTvJVT— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) October 27, 2023

posted 1m ago by @michaeldweiss via Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) / Twitter

 

@visegrad24: RT by @visegrad24: Migrant man destroys posters of Israeli civilians kidnapped by Hamas. He is quickly confronted by a couple of angry New Yo…

Migrant man destroys posters of Israeli civilians kidnapped by Hamas.He is quickly confronted by a couple of angry New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/dkCgVd4beS— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 27, 2023

posted 2m ago by @visegrad24 via Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) / Twitter

 

@anders_aslund: The Ukrainian National Bank just cut its key rate by 400bp from 20% to 16%, while Russia’s Central Bank raised its interest rate from 13% to 15%. Inflation is about the same in both countries around 7%, indicating that people believe more in Ukraine than in Russia. So do I.

The Ukrainian National Bank just cut its key rate by 400bp from 20% to 16%, while Russia’s Central Bank raised its interest rate from 13% to 15%. Inflation is about the same in both countries around 7%, indicating that people believe more in Ukraine than in Russia.So do I.— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) October 27, 2023

posted 7m ago by @anders_aslund via Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) / Twitter

 

@thehill: “To better build climate resilience, we must give data a voice” (@TheHillOpinion) https://t.co/pl7jfo9jUz https://t.co/nmwvmCuk4m

“To better build climate resilience, we must give data a voice” (@TheHillOpinion) https://t.co/pl7jfo9jUz pic.twitter.com/nmwvmCuk4m— The Hill (@thehill) October 27, 2023

posted 8m ago by @thehill via The Hill (@thehill) / Twitter

 

@thehill: Israeli military says ground forces “expanding” activity in Gaza https://t.co/ZoMXwrtb4m https://t.co/VMvQVhxwAI

Israeli military says ground forces “expanding” activity in Gaza https://t.co/ZoMXwrtb4m pic.twitter.com/VMvQVhxwAI— The Hill (@thehill) October 27, 2023

posted 8m ago by @thehill via The Hill (@thehill) / Twitter

 

@thehill: President Biden met with China’s top diplomat Friday and the White House said the president emphasized that both countries need to “manage competition in the relationship responsibly” and maintain “open lines of communication.” https://t.co/ZCYpk4bAsD

President Biden met with China’s top diplomat Friday and the White House said the president emphasized that both countries need to “manage competition in the relationship responsibly” and maintain “open lines of communication.” https://t.co/ZCYpk4bAsD— The Hill (@thehill) October 27, 2023

posted 8m ago by @thehill via The Hill (@thehill) / Twitter

 

@ZelenskyyUa: The war cabinet today focused on Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariinka, and Melitopol directions. Supplies. Defense. Offensive. Long-range weapons and missiles. I thank all warriors who are standing firm. This week has seen a surge in enemy losses. That’s exactly what’s needed. https://t.co/4ICgWx8veZ

The war cabinet today focused on Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariinka, and Melitopol directions.Supplies. Defense. Offensive. Long-range weapons and missiles.I thank all warriors who are standing firm. This week has seen a surge in enemy losses. That’s exactly what’s needed. pic.twitter.com/4ICgWx8veZ— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa)…

posted 9m ago by @ZelenskyyUa via Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) / Twitter

 

@AP: Authorities scoured the woods and hundreds of acres of family-owned property, sent dive teams into a river and scrutinized an apparent suicide note in the second day of their intensive search for the suspect accused of killing 18 people in Maine. https://t.co/TPojSCwkw3

Authorities scoured the woods and hundreds of acres of family-owned property, sent dive teams into a river and scrutinized an apparent suicide note in the second day of their intensive search for the suspect accused of killing 18 people in Maine. https://t.co/TPojSCwkw3— The Associated Press (@AP) October 27, 2023

posted 10m ago by @AP via The Associated Press (@AP) / Twitter

 

@AP: A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region. https://t.co/UbnktFRRRb

A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region. pic.twitter.com/UbnktFRRRb— The Associated Press (@AP) October 27, 2023

posted 10m ago by @AP via The Associated Press (@AP) / Twitter

 

@AP: President Joe Biden met Friday with China’s top diplomat in a conversation that’s viewed as the precursor to a potential sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. https://t.co/46PsL3fTlh

President Joe Biden met Friday with China’s top diplomat in a conversation that’s viewed as the precursor to a potential sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. https://t.co/46PsL3fTlh— The Associated Press (@AP) October 27, 2023

posted 10m ago by @AP via The Associated Press (@AP) / Twitter

 

@SecDef: Today, I spoke with my Ukrainian counterpart @rustem_umerov to discuss security assistance priorities and support for Ukraine in its ongoing fight again Russia’s war of aggression. https://t.co/bPMNTALRZy

Today, I spoke with my Ukrainian counterpart @rustem_umerov to discuss security assistance priorities and support for Ukraine in its ongoing fight again Russia’s war of aggression.https://t.co/bPMNTALRZy— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 27, 2023

posted 11m ago by @SecDef via Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) / Twitter

 

@MailOnline: Shocking moment yob steals a bus and smashes into a car before going on a 10-mile joyride – as he is jailed for one year https://t.co/335ruQ9Ruu https://t.co/cuZxMKYabR

Shocking moment yob steals a bus and smashes into a car before going on a 10-mile joyride – as he is jailed for one year https://t.co/335ruQ9Ruu pic.twitter.com/cuZxMKYabR— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 27, 2023

posted 16m ago by @MailOnline via Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) / Twitter

 

@MailOnline: BORIS JOHNSON: A blinding flash, a father dying in front of his sons, and a video that proves Israel is fighting for survival against a death cult… https://t.co/mKUwYi21uM https://t.co/BmB061VvC7

BORIS JOHNSON: A blinding flash, a father dying in front of his sons, and a video that proves Israel is fighting for survival against a death cult… https://t.co/mKUwYi21uM pic.twitter.com/BmB061VvC7— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 27, 2023

posted 16m ago by @MailOnline via Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) / Twitter

 

@sentdefender: Explosions have been reported within the last hour near a U.S. Operations Base in Northeastern Syria close to the City of Al-Malikiyah.

Explosions have been reported within the last hour near a U.S. Operations Base in Northeastern Syria close to the City of Al-Malikiyah.— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 27, 2023

posted 17m ago by @sentdefender via OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) / Twitter

 

@sentdefender: Source: https://t.co/RS5wo3SP5O

Source: https://t.co/RS5wo3SP5O— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 27, 2023

posted 17m ago by @sentdefender via OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) / Twitter

 

@sentdefender: Two Israeli Officials have told Axios that the decision to Expand Ground Operations in the Gaza Strip was made last night by the Israeli War Cabinet alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu following reports from Diplomats that Hostage Negotiations in Qatar had reached a Stalemate. https://t.co/FfVP5QPXVe

Two Israeli Officials have told Axios that the decision to Expand Ground Operations in the Gaza Strip was made last night by the Israeli War Cabinet alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu following reports from Diplomats that Hostage Negotiations in Qatar had reached a Stalemate. pic.twitter.com/FfVP5QPXVe— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 27, 2023…

posted 17m ago by @sentdefender via OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) / Twitter

 

@sentdefender: Hamas-Linked Accounts are claiming that Israeli Tank has been Struck by an Anti-Tank Guided Missile and Destroyed to the East of Beit Hanou in Northern Gaza.

Hamas-Linked Accounts are claiming that Israeli Tank has been Struck by an Anti-Tank Guided Missile and Destroyed to the East of Beit Hanou in Northern Gaza.— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 27, 2023

posted 17m ago by @sentdefender via OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) / Twitter

 

@Faytuks: RT by @sentdefender: Video showing a tank firing into Gaza https://t.co/46P33XVzAM

Video showing a tank firing into Gaza pic.twitter.com/46P33XVzAM— Faytuks News Δ (@Faytuks) October 27, 2023

posted 17m ago by @Faytuks via OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) / Twitter

 

@TreyYingst: RT by @sentdefender: An update from the Gaza border https://t.co/8LQwysmGgl

An update from the Gaza border pic.twitter.com/8LQwysmGgl— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 27, 2023

posted 17m ago by @TreyYingst via OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) / Twitter

 

@Robert4787: Just posted a piece about the uncertainty of the Bioweapons threat on my Author’s Site. https://t.co/yZ5oKWCe9y #bioweapons #threatintelligence #NationalSecurity #USA #dhs https://t.co/I6XCznrtYh

Just posted a piece about the uncertainty of the Bioweapons threat on my Author’s Site.https://t.co/yZ5oKWCe9y#bioweapons #threatintelligence #NationalSecurity #USA #dhs pic.twitter.com/I6XCznrtYh— Robert Morton (@Robert4787) October 27, 2023

posted 23m ago by @Robert4787 via Robert Morton (@Robert4787) / Twitter

 

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Donetsk, Ukraine, May 25, 2014. Pro-Russian militants from the ‘Vostok’ (East) walk in front of the regional administration building. Ukraine’s acting president says 14 Ukrainians have been killed after a helicopter was shot down by pro-Russians over Slavyansk. © PHOTOMIG (PAP/EPA)