03 World

Blurb:

The Trump administration is looking for alternative ways to ensure federal law enforcement officers are paid as the government shutdown enters its third week.

With Democrats and Republicans locked in a stalemate over the shutdown, officials in government are exploring alternative ways of paying for some key programmes, including a food programme for women and children.

Members of the US military, meanwhile, will be paid using funds previously allocated to the Pentagon following an order from President Donald Trump.

Blurb:

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks for more detail of what the UK is doing to help ensure more aid gets into Gaza.

He says all the bodies of dead hostages need to be returned.

And he asks what the UK is doing to ensure that the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank stops.

Starmer thanks Davey for the “content and tone” of his response. (He is making a contrast with Badenoch’s.)

On aid, he says there is a need for more trucks be admitted to Gaza.

On the bodies of hostages, Starmer says he agrees with Davey.

He says, when the media are finally admitted to Gaza, he thinks there will be ‘“quite some debate” in the Commons about “the full horror” of what happened.

Blurb:

Nuclear stocks rallied Wednesday after the U.S. Army launched a program to deploy small reactors.

Shares of NuScale, a small reactor developer, soared 17%. Oklo and Nano Nuclear were up nearly 7% and 4%, resepectively. The uranium company Centrus was up 13%.

The U.S. Army on Tuesday launched a program to build micro nuclear reactors in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit. The microreactors will be commercially owned and operated with the goal of helping developers scale up their businesses, according to the Army.

Blurb:

Conservative members of Canada’s Parliament are investigating the Antifa militant who allegedly threw a smoke bomb inside a Montreal church at which American pro-life Christian singer Sean Feucht was performing.

Last Thursday, a Parliamentary committee grilled Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree about the incident that took place in July.

Conservative MP Dane Lloyd asked the minister, “There have been allegations made that there is an Antifa member who threw smoke bombs into a church service in Montreal this past summer.”

He added that the “allegations are that they’re a government employee that worked at a military base outside of Montreal. Are you aware of these allegations?”

Blurb:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he believes there is little chance a Palestinian state could exist as a completely autonomous, sovereign state side by side with Israel.

Pointing to historical precedent, Netanyahu argued a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would leave a security vacuum in the region, allowing radical groups to assert military power. His justification for a long-term Israeli military presence comes as Gazan clans or local militias opposed to Hamas’s rule have been rounded up and executed by the terrorist group after Israel withdrew some forces to make way for phase one of President Donald Trump’s peace deal.

Blurb:

Some Palestinians fear Hamas will not honor President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan as footage emerged of the terrorists executing civilians in Gaza’s streets, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Hamas began rounding up alleged Israeli collaborators and killing them as soon as the country’s military withdrew from Gaza after a ceasefire was announced Oct. 8, an anonymous Gazan activist told NYP. The broader 20-point peace agreement requires Hamas to permanently disarm, but video evidence of its brutality toward Palestinians shows it continues to terrorize Gaza.

Blurb:

Aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel resumed preparations to open the main Rafah crossing after a dispute over the return of the bodies of dead hostages that had threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Israel had threatened to keep Rafah shut and reduce aid supplies because Hamas was returning bodies too slowly, showing the risks to a truce that has stopped two years of devastating conflict in Gaza and freed all living hostages held by Hamas.

Tomahawk missile - Wikipedia

Blurb:

President Donald Trump has suggested that the U.S. could send Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine if Russia refuses to move toward a settlement in the ongoing war.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump described the Tomahawk as “an incredible weapon, a very offensive weapon.”

Trump hinted he would use the prospect of deployment as leverage in upcoming discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I may tell him [Putin] that if the war is not settled, we may very well,” Trump said.

Blurb:

ZELENSKY HOPING ‘PEACE COMES FOR UKRAINE AS WELL’:  Still basking in the glow of his pivotal role ending the bloodshed in Gaza, President Donald Trump is reengaging in the peace negotiations he essentially gave up on last month, inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington to discuss how to put more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to seriously consider ending the war which is well into its third year, and has claimed hundred of thousand of lives.

“I will also have the opportunity to come to Washington and meet with President Trump on Friday. I believe we will discuss a series of steps that I intend to propose. I am grateful to President Trump for our dialogue and his support,” Zelensky posted on X. “The main focus of the visit is air defense and our long-range capabilities aimed at exerting pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.”

Blurb:

Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch has called for a nationwide ban on burqas and niqabs in all public places, saying the country must “wake up from its naivety” about Islamism and act decisively to protect Swedish values and social cohesion.

The Christian Democrats (KD) leader told Aftonbladet that she wants legislation prohibiting the full-face coverings in streets, squares, shops, healthcare facilities, and other public settings — a step beyond previous local attempts to ban them in schools and public workplaces that were struck down under current law.

“You should be able to meet for real if you are on the street, if you are shopping in the square, or taking the children to the health center. Then I don’t want to meet someone who has covered their entire face,” Busch said.

Blurb:

Tearful reunions were captured on video Monday as the last 20 living Israeli hostages were released from Hamas captivity in Gaza and reunited with their families.
Family members shed tears of unimaginable joy as they embraced their loved ones for the first time in more than two years.

Video clips released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) depict the emotional moments when Guy Gilboa-Dalal (24), Matan Zangauker (25), Matan Angrest (22), and Eitan Mor (25), and Alon Ohel (24) were reunited with their parents at the IDF’s Re’im base in southern Israel.

Zangauker can be heard asking his mother if his dog was still alive.

Blurb:

In the shadows of the joy sweeping Israel over the return of 20 living hostages taken by Hamas, outrage erupted over the failure of Hamas to return the bodies of all those who died since they were taken after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists.

Only four of 28 bodies held by Hamas in Gaza were being returned on Monday, according to ABC News.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the action a “failure to meet commitments,” of the first phase of the ceasefire deal brokered by President Donald Trump.

“Any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a blatant violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly,” Katz said in the statement.

Blurb:

The drums of war are echoing across the Caribbean. U.S. warships patrol the southern sea lanes, and squadrons of F-35s wait on standby in Puerto Rico. Strike lists are reportedly being drafted in Washington. The question is not whether the United States can act but whether it should. And more importantly: Who is the real enemy?

All signs point to Venezuela, long a fixation of neoconservatives who see regime change as a cure-all. For years, some in the Republican Party have argued that Venezuela sits at the center of Latin America’s drug trade and that military action is overdue.

Blurb:

… as RedState reported on Sunday, as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas became a reality, the radical terrorist group faced violent clashes with rival Palestinian militias inside Gaza. Saleh al-Jafarawi, a pro-Hamas, antisemitic social media influencer with more than three million followers, was reportedly killed in one of those clashes.

And on Monday, Rama Duwaji publicly grieved al-Jafarawi’s death on Instagram, posting four broken-heart emojis, and mourning “Beloved Jafarawi,” as she called the radical antisemite.

How fitting for Mamdani, likely the next mayor of New York City, huh? You know — to have a no-doubt loving wife who is apparently at least as radical as he is.

The Palestinian Influencer who was known for his viral social media videos, was killed by an anti-Hamas militia in Gaza.

Blurb:

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev on Monday warned U.S. President Donald Trump that the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine could “end badly” for him.

Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, appeared to suggest that Russia might issue a nuclear response if Ukraine receives and fires the long-range rockets at targets inside Russia.

“The supply of these missiles could end badly for everyone. First and foremost for Trump,” Medvedev wrote in a post on Telegram after the American president repeated his own threat of supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine if Russia does not agree to end the war.

Blurb:

Monday was a day of rejoicing, of gratitude. For the families and friends of the 20 last living hostages freed after two years of hell, it was a day of fully breathing once again. The hostage release came as a very good sign that Hamas, the genocidal monsters responsible for the devastating two-year war with Israel, could at least come through on a principle term in a long sought ceasefire.

“This is the day the Lord has made known to us, and we will rejoice in it,” Zvika Mor, father of Eitan Mor, said after reuniting with his hostage son, according to reporting by the Times of Israel.

Peace is suddenly a real promise for this war-ravaged portion of the Middle East.

Blurb:

The U.S. is at war with drug cartels. The news should be cause for celebration, but some are trying to discredit and derail these efforts.

According to the detractors, the Cartel of the Suns doesn’t exist. Killing drug traffickers is a war crime. The U.S., they argue, should relinquish its regional leadership and pursue ostrich diplomacy.

In this context of retorts and recriminations, the Trump administration is not giving up or giving in. On the contrary, it is determined to track, kill and destroy the drug cartels. This isn’t propaganda; it’s a promise being fulfilled in real time.

Blurb:

Venezuela has said it will close its embassy in Norway, days after opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

Norway’s foreign ministry said that the Venezuelan embassy had not given any explanation for its decision on Monday.

“It is regrettable. Despite our differences on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue open with Venezuela and will continue to work in this direction,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Blurb:

Longtime CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour offered a lengthy apology for comments comparing the treatment of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the plight of the residents in the Gaza Strip.

Amanpour was reporting on the historic peace deal negotiated by President Donald Trump for Hamas to return hostages to Israel, both living and the remains of the dead. Even critics of the president have had to acknowledge his efforts to secure peace.

‘I regret also saying that they may have been treated better than many Gazans because Hamas used these hostages as pawns and bargaining chips.’

Blurb:

It’s been a very busy 36 hours for President Donald Trump. He brought peace to the Middle East. Once again, he trounced his doubters, ended the war in Gaza, and got Hamas to release the rest of the Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 attack two years ago. The remains of captives murdered by Hamas will also be returned.

The president addressed the Knesset and later flew to Egypt to make this ceasefire agreement, which Trump pitched at the end of September, official. As with anything relating to the president of the United States, he wasn’t on schedule, though this was intentional. Trump stuck around a little longer to meet with the families of the hostages.

Blurb:

In the early morning hours of Friday, October 10, masked figures were caught on video at the UK’s Brighton Centre on Kings Road, smashing windows and spray-painting the walls. A women’s rights conference, put on by the feminist group FiLiA described by the BBC as “a three-day event billed as one of the largest grassroots feminist gatherings in Europe,” was scheduled to be held there. The left-wing feminist event featured 250 speakers, and 2,400 attendees were expected to attend.

Filia had previously requested protection for the conference but had been denied.