Category: World

Hamas Releases Two American Hostages

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Hamas released two American hostages on Friday after detaining the U.S. citizens since it carried out terrorist attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, the State Department said.

Hamas said it released a mother and her daughter, both American citizens, for humanitarian reasons and to spite the Biden administration’s claims about Hamas’ atrocities, Hamas said in an English-language statement on Friday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken later confirmed that two American hostages were transferred out of Hamas custody around 3 p.m. EST.

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Explosion Damages Historic Christian Church in Gaza

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An Israeli airstrike reportedly damaged the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church campus in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Approximately 500 people had been sheltering on the church campus, including 80 council members, when the blast occurred and killed two people, according to the WSJ. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) was targeting a Hamas control center on Thursday and “damaged the wall of a church in the area” during an airstrike, The Washington Post reported.

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Illegal Immigration at Southern Border Hits New September Record

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Border Patrol saw a new surge in illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border in September that marked a new record for the agency, according to internal agency data exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Border Patrol recorded 218,777 encounters across the southern border in September, the highest on record for the month going back to at least the year 2000, according to the data. September marks the end of fiscal year 2023, meaning Border Patrol apprehensions surpassed 2 million.

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Virginia Sheriff Departments Asked to Contribute Excess Gear to Israel

The Center Square

Attorney General Jason Miyares has enlisted the help of the commonwealth’s 123 sheriff’s departments by asking for expired or surplus gear that can be donated to the Israeli military.

“I am shocked and grieved by the senseless terrorist attacks on Israel by the Hamas terrorist organization. The loss of innocent life and disregard for human rights is painfully tragic to see,” Miyares wrote in the letter.

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North Korean Defector Yeonmi Park Brings Her ‘Warning to America’ to Chandler Event

Rachel Alexander

North Korean defector Yeonmi Park spoke to a Davos in the Desert gathering at The Forum in Chandler Monday evening. The young author contrasted the totalitarian government she fled with increasing wokism in the U.S. Due to her speaking out, she said, “I have become the enemy of the woke.”

David Wanetick, who founded Davos in the Desert, spoke briefly first about the principles of the organization. It is an “anti-globalist movement dedicated to providing forums whereby business leaders, thought leaders and government servants share their ideas for safeguarding freedom and liberty.”

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U.S. Venture Capital Firms Participated in Chinese Government ‘Technology Transfer’ Contests

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Five U.S.-based venture capital firms have participated in Chinese government-backed entrepreneurial contests that effectively aid Beijing’s “technology transfer” strategy, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language contest records.

U.S.-based venture capital (VC) firms GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital and Walden International are variously identified as “participating institutions” and/or “angel investors” in Chinese government-backed “start-up” contests supporting the Thousand Talents Plan, according to the contest’s brochures and promotional videos. Executives from these five VC firms have served as Thousand Talents Plan start-up contest judges, steering committee members and mentors for contestants going back to the first 2012 contest, according to a DCNF review of contest records.

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Ukraine Used Long-Range Missiles Secretly Shipped from U.S.: Report

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Ukraine reportedly used long-range missiles secretly shipped over from the U.S. to attack a Russian airfield on Tuesday, according to Politico and visual evidence of the strikes.

Reports in September suggested the Biden administration was coming close to sending Ukraine the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), long-range missiles formerly considered a bridge too far in giving Kyiv the capability to strike Russian territory and risk major escalation. Now it appears that the missiles arrived in recent weeks as revealed in the strike on a Russian airfield in Berdyansk, in the Russian-occupied eastern part of the country, Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the deliveries.

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Florida Brings Home Nearly 300 Americans Stranded in Israel

The Center Square

Within two days of announcing Florida would arrange transportation for Americans stranded in Israel and bring them to Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis welcomed home nearly 300 Sunday night.

At the Tampa International Airport, DeSantis posted a video, stating, “We are having our first flight of people being rescued from Israel. [The plane] has landed, over 260 people that wanted to get back to the United States and couldn’t do it, there was a void of leadership. So, we stepped up and led. We’re happy to be able to deliver and ready to welcome them back to the United States of America.”

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Florida Moves to Fly Stranded Americans Out of Israel

The Center Square

After Hamas attacked Israel, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state would be advancing greater sanctions against Iran. He also declared a state of emergency and issued an executive order to activate the national and state guard and other agencies to help bring Americans home who are stranded in Israel. 

According to some news reports, there are roughly 20,000 Americans, including many, who are stranded in Israel. They are unable to get out because of commercial flight cancellations and other travel and logistics disruptions due to the ongoing war with Hamas. 

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Georgia State Senator Caught in Israel During Hamas Attack Praises Israelis for ‘Protecting Americans’

Tom Pappert

Georgia State Senator Russ Goodman (R-Cogdell) was in Israel with his mother on October 7, when Hamas fighters launched a horrific surprise attack on the country, and told The Georgia Star News he was thankful for Israelis for “protecting Americans” caught in the conflict.

In a statement released Thursday, Goodman relayed his first hand experiences “being in Israel while Hamas terrorists launched a sickening attack that killed hundreds of innocent Israelis,” and described “hearing the rockets fired from the Iron Dome to automatic weapon fire heard near our hotel,” as his  “ex-military Israeli guide” refused to leave his family “even as rockets landed within 200 yards of his home with his wife and children there.” The senator said he witnessed “the very best of the Israeli people,” and the experience left him convinced of “the bond that our freedom-loving countries share.”

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Democratic Socialists of America Rally in Nashville to Support Terrorist Group Hamas and Oppose Israel

Michael Patrick Leahy

Several hundred members of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Democrat Socialists of America and other leftist groups rallied in Nashville on Saturday to support the terrorist group Hamas and oppose Israel’s actions to defend itself. The rally took place one week after more than 1,200 Israelis were massacred by Hamas terrorists, who launched a sneak attack into Israel from the Gaza strip on October 7.

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Pentagon Announces Another $200 Million in Aid for Ukraine

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On Wednesday, the Department of Defense announced yet another massive aid package for Ukraine, this time amounting to $200 million.

As reported by the New York Post, this will be the 48th such package sent to Eastern Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine. It will include 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), AIM-9M missiles to assist with aerial defense, and counter-unmanned drones.

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Leftist Metro Nashville Leaders Silent on Socialists Anti-Israel Rally for Palestine

M.D. Kittle

Metro Nashville Councilman Sean Parker is a founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America-Middle Tennessee Chapter, which has scheduled a rally for Palestine on Saturday afternoon in downtown Nashville.

The “Emergency Rally for Gaza,” scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. in front of the Estes Kefauver Federal Building on Broadway, will be held exactly one week after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip and raped, tortured and systematically murdered 1,300 Israelis, most of them innocent civilians.

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Georgia Buys $10 Million in Israel Bonds to Support Ally During Hamas Conflict

Tom Pappert

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) announced on Friday that Georgia has purchased an additional $10 million in Israel bonds to support the country’s “defense efforts against the militant Hamas regime,” which began horrific surprise attacks against Israel on October 7.

Kemp announced the purchase on Friday morning in a press release that revealed $10 million “was the highest available on the market.” The latest buy brings Georgia’s total investment in Israel bonds to $25 million, and the governor noted Georgia has “purchased an aggregate of $50 million in bonds, with half the bonds now matured,” since he took office.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Releases Statement: ‘My Heart Remains Heavy’ over ‘The Pain, Loss, and Horror Endured by the Jewish People’; Makes No Mention of the Atrocities Committed by Hamas Against Israel

Kaitlin Housler

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell released a statement on Friday offering prayers for “anyone with loved ones endangered by the ongoing conflict” in the Middle East, failing to mention and condemn the atrocities committed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Israel.

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Over $400 Million in Taxpayer Funds Have Been Sent to Gaza Since Hamas Takeover

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Ever since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas first took over the territory of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the United States has sent more than $400 million in taxpayer dollars to the region.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, documents from the State Department’s U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the $400 million spent over the last 14 years since 2009 has allegedly gone towards development projects. Despite USAID’s insistence that the money could only be spent on humanitarian purposes, many critics have warned that the funds could be used by Hamas to fund its acts of terrorism against Israel and the West.

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Tennessee State Rep and Far Left U.S. Senate Candidate Gloria Johnson Calls for Cease-Fire Following Brutal Hamas Terrorist Attack on Israel

M.D. Kittle

Tennessee State Representative and liberal U.S. Senate candidate Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) has been relatively quiet on terrorist group Hamas’ horrifying attack on innocent Israeli civilians, but the Tennessee leftist’s first response was to call for a cease-fire.

Johnson (pictured above), who gained national attention as a member of the so-called “Tennessee Three” disorderly Democrat state lawmakers, fired off a message on her X account as Hamas members were systematically raping and murdering Jews.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Offers Prayers for Israel, No Condemnation of Hamas in Statement ‘Distributed at Solidarity Event Hosted by the Jewish Federation’

Peter D'Abrosca

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell did not attend a Monday evening solidarity event held by the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville at the Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel over the weekend.

Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) spoke at the event and told the crowd of 700 people, “We have seen once again the persecution of the nation of Israel, but we will see once again the steadfast resolve of the people of this state and this nation to stand alongside the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.”

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Arizona Democrat Silent After CAIR Group Photo Resurfaces Following Hamas Attack on Israel

Tom Pappert

Arizona State Senator Juan Mendez (D-Tempe) did not respond to a request by The Arizona Sun Times for comment on a photograph showing the legislator attending a meeting of the Arizona branch of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that featured Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), or a second photo depicting Mendez wearing a shawl that seems to feature the modern borders of Israel identified as Palestinian territory. The photos resurfaced on social media following the brutal Hamas attack on Israel that began last week.

The photos were shared by Republican Arizona House candidate Ari Daniel Bradshaw to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. “Arizona can’t tolerate anti-semitic Hamas supporters like [Mendez] any longer,” wrote Bradshaw, who is Jewish. Bradshaw promised to support 2024 Arizona House candidate Caden Darrow, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran against Mendez’s wife, State Representative Athena Salman (D-Tempe), in 2022.

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Hamas Leader Calls for Global Day of Rage on Friday: ‘This Is the Time for Jihad’

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Khaled Mashal, a leader and founding member of the Islamic terror group Hamas, has called for a global Day of Rage this Friday, saying “this is the time for Jihad.”

Hamas, an Islamic political and military organization that governs the Gaza Strip, carried out a brutal, highly coordinated terror attack on Israel over the weekend, slaughtering more than 1,200 people—including fourteen Americans—and wounding more than 2,100, according to the latest reports. The Palestinian terrorists also took more than 130 civilians hostage and have threatened to execute them on live broadcasts.

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Biden Admin Considers Tying Ukraine Funding to Israel Aid Request: Report

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The White House is considering tying more Ukraine funding to a request for a crucial aid package to Israel, in a bid to get Congress back on board with support for Ukraine, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The Biden administration is expected to announce a military aid package for Israel after Hamas and Palestinian militants carried out terrorist attacks against the country that killed over 1,000 Israelis and at least nine Americans. But whether the aid package is approved could depend on Congress approving further funding for Ukraine in tandem, even as support in both chambers for Ukraine aid has dropped dramatically in recent months, according to the Post.

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Ilhan Omar Implores Americans to ‘Oppose Israeli Military Response’ to Hamas Attacks

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U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar took to social media on Monday imploring Americans to “oppose the Israeli military response” to the surprise attack that Hamas orchestrated on Israeli civilians over the weekend that is estimated to have killed more than 900.

“As the world is condemning Hamas’s attacks, we must also oppose an Israeli military response that has already taken the lives of hundreds of Palestinians, including nearly two dozen children,” Omar said as part of a 12-tweet thread she unfurled on Monday mid-afternoon.

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China’s Real Estate Crisis Worsens as Companies Risk Default

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Two of China’s top real estate developers both show signs that they may not be able to pay off their international debts as the country’s property sector continues to suffer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Country Garden, which just one year ago appeared to be withstanding China’s tumultuous real estate crisis, failed to make a payment to international bondholders Monday after it reported disappointing September sales, according to the WSJ. China Evergrande, another major Chinese developer, abandoned a debt restructuring deal after regulators barred it from issuing new securities that it needed to fulfill its obligations due to its subsidiary being under investigation, which could now lead to the collapse of the company.

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Israel Eases Gun Laws to Arm ‘As Many Citizens as Possible’ After Terrorist Attack

Just the News

Israel is easing its gun laws with the goal of arming “as many citizens as possible,” according to Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, as former U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Gunter is urging Israelis to take up guns in self-defense after the horrific Hamas terror attacks. 

“There’s a great desire of Israelis to protect their homeland,” Gunter told Just the News. “And I think along with that will be an increased desire to have gun ownership.

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Trump Touts Travel Ban on Muslim Countries After Hamas Terrorists Invade Israel

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump touted his travel ban on Muslim-majority countries in a speech in New Hampshire after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel over the weekend, killing more than 900 people, including at least 11 U.S. citizens, in what was the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Trump said Monday during a rally in Wolfeboro, N.H., that people are pouring into the United States across the southern border and, “we have no idea from where they come, the same people in many cases, the same people that just attacked Israel.”

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House GOP Report: ‘More Than 99 Percent of Illegal Aliens Released’ by Biden Administration Remain in the U.S.

Just the News

More than 99 percent of illegal immigrants released by the Biden Administration from the border between Jan 20, 2021 and Mar 31, 2023 remain in the United States, according to a report released on Monday by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.

“Thanks to relentless efforts by the Committee and its Immigration Subcommittee, Biden’s DHS has finally caved and provided crucial data on the border crisis,” the GOP committee staff wrote on X when announcing the report’s release.

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Haley Talking Tough in Iowa, Says U.S. Needs to Back Ukraine and Israel in Wars Brought by Thugs and Terrorists

M.D. Kittle

Asserting the U.S. must do all it can to help Israel “eliminate” the Hamas-driven terrorism that rocked Israel over the weekend, GOP presidential candidate and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is striking an even more hawkish tone for U.S. involvement in two major theaters of war — Europe and the Middle East.

“I would tell Israel that whatever it is you need to, not just get your country back but to eliminate the terrorists, we should do because Hamas is saying, ‘Death to America,” and it is in our best interest to make sure that they are not doing anything that would harm Americans or harm our friends,” Haley told a smallish gathering of some 75 people Monday afternoon at a town hall event in Central Iowa.

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Socialist Group Backing Minnesota Dems Condemned for Comments after Hamas Attack on Israel

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The Democratic Socialists of America, a political organization with a growing influence in Minnesota politics, was widely condemned over the weekend when it blamed “Israel’s apartheid regime” for Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state.

The Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) New York City chapter promoted an “All Out for Palestine” protest that took place in Times Square Sunday, just a day after Hamas invaded Israel, targeting civilians, taking women and children hostage, and killing hundreds at a music festival.

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Commentary: State Senator Scott Surovell Should Resign After Blaming Israel for Hamas Terror Attack

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by Shaun Kenney   When Hamas fires rockets, they target Israeli citizens indiscriminately. When the IDF responds, they warn their targets, clear the buildings of civilians by contacting them via cell and warning others… and then fire their rockets. Over the next few weeks, this will be the very real distinction between the good guys and the bad guys in Gaza — and don’t ever forget it. Yet there is a wider question at play here. How long would any American tolerate living as Israelis must from day to day? Why should any Israeli be expected to tolerate that? How many Jewish lives is that worth? Apparently to Democratic State Senator Scott Surovell, about 800. Maybe more. Scott Surovell: RESIGN. There is nothing more despicable than arguing that 800 dead Jews deserved what was coming to them. Yet State Senator Scott Surovell didn’t shy away from precisely that sentiment in the wake of the Hamas attack on civilians yesterday: The division and distraction created by Netanyahu's judicial power grab created created an opportunity for these attacks in the same way House Republicans' civil war creates opportunities for other country's to take advantage American disorganization https://t.co/H7iIEHUtKn — Senator Scott Surovell (@ssurovell) October 8,…

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Commentary: Reflections on Israel’s New Existential War

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There have been plenty of terrorist attacks on Israel. A dozen or so conventional wars of various magnitude have been waged against the Jewish state. And more often there have been mixtures of both.

Yet never have hundreds of gangs of black-clad murderers carefully planned to swarm Israel, with an agenda to pull random Jews out of their homes and off the street, murder them, and toss their bodies in the street.

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