The ceasefire is broadly holding in Gaza, with Israeli forces inside the strip having pulled back to the so-called "yellow line." Still, renewed Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians last week in response to what Israel alleged was a ceasefire violation by a Hamas gunman.
The bodies of two deceased hostages are still thought to be in Gaza. Israeli authorities have been releasing Palestinian prisoners and the bodies of deceased Palestinians detainees in exchange for the return of hostage remains.
Elsewhere, Israel is continuing strikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement there signed last November. On Sunday, Israel launched an airstrike in the capital Beirut for the first time in several months, killing Hezbollah chief of staff Haytham Ali Tabataba'i.
Israel-Gaza live updates: Israeli forces press day 2 of West Bank operation
US navy accused of cover-up over dangerous plutonium in San Francisco
The US navy knew of potentially dangerous levels of airborne plutonium in San Francisco for almost a year before it alerted city officials after it carried out testing that detected radioactive material in November last year, public health advocates allege.
The plutonium levels exceeded the federal action threshold at the navy’s highly contaminated, 866-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. It was detected in an area adjacent to a residential neighborhood filled with condos, and which includes a public park.
The city is planning to redevelop Hunters Point with up to 10,000 housing units and new waterfront commercial districts. The property was used as a staging ground for nuclear weapons testing, and the discovery marks the latest in a series of controversies and cover-ups of dangerous, radioactive material at the site.
The navy is trying to avoid spending several billion dollars to do a proper clean up, said Jeff Ruch, senior counsel with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility nonprofit, which is involved in litigation at the site.
“It’s been one thing after another after another,” Ruch said. “What else is in the closet? We don’t know and we’re not going to search the closet to find out.”
The navy did not respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.
Zohran Mamdani is rewriting the political rules around support for Israel
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be quaking in his boots at the decisive victory of Zohran Mamdani in the 4 November New York City mayoral election. Not because of absurd allegations of antisemitism for which there is no evidence, but because Mamdani has broken the longstanding taboo for successful New York candidates against criticizing the Israeli government. And he has only reinforced his approach in the month since his election.
New York has the largest Jewish population in the United States – and the second-largest of any city in the world after Tel Aviv. The longstanding assumption was that many Jewish voters prioritized the defense of the Israeli government over other issues, so criticism of Israel would set them against a politician.
Mamdani blew that assumption out of the water. During the campaign he spoke accurately and openly about the genocide that Israel was committing in Gaza. He insisted that all residents of Israel should have equal rights. He said he would arrest Netanyahu were he to show up in New York. Yet one-third of New York’s Jewish voters cast a ballot for him. As did many others.
Some Jews may have been uncomfortable with Mamdani’s criticism of Israel but liked other aspects of his candidacy, such as his relentless focus on affordability. Others, myself included, were attracted by his candor on such an important issue as Israel. Many were also probably appalled by the efforts of Mamdani’s principal opponent, Andrew Cuomo, to tar Mamdani with fact-free allegations of antisemitism.
Mamdani has only continued his openness on Israel since the election. In his remarkably friendly meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on 21 November, Mamdani repeated his genocide views and noted that the US government was funding it. Trump let the comment slide without a response.
After a major Manhattan synagogue hosted a group that was encouraging American Jews to emigrate not only to Israel (a normal enough appeal) but also to Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, Mamdani noted the illegality of the settlements. That is an accurate reflection of article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population to occupied territory.
Suspect in Washington DC national guard shooting had ties to CIA, agency confirms
The suspected shooter of two national guard members in Washington DC on Wednesday worked with CIA-backed military units during the US war in Afghanistan, the agency has confirmed.
The alleged gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, came to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program that gave some Afghans who had worked for the US government entry visas to the US. He was granted asylum in April this year, under the Trump administration, Reuters reported.
Lakanwal’s ties to the Central Intelligence Agency, which worked alongside US special forces in Afghanistan, were confirmed by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, to media outlets.
The New York Times reported that the shooting suspect had worked for several US government agencies in Afghanistan, including CIA-backed units in the southern province of Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban.
The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, said those CIA-backed units included counterterrorism squads known as the “zero units”, which were involved in combat missions to seize or kill suspected terrorists.
“The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA,” Ratcliffe told Fox News digital, adding that Lakanwal’s involvement with the agency was “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation”.
Trump Rips Into Another Female Reporter With Incredibly 'Stupid' Personal Attack
President Donald Trump on Thursday attacked a journalist for asking a basic question during a Thanksgiving media availability after he spoke to U.S. service members, part of a recent trend of insults he’s hurled at the women who cover him.
“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” he asked the reporter during a tense exchange about the suspect in Wednesday’s attack on two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
“There was no vetting or anything, they came in unvetted,” he said.
“Actually, your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S.,” she persisted. “So why do you blame the Biden administration?”
Trump did not like the question at all.
“Because they let ’em in,” he fired back. “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came into on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
Trump during the event announced that one of the victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, had died and railed against the immigration policies of President Joe Biden as the suspect, who had worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, was allowed into the United States as part of a resettlement program in 2021.
However, he was granted asylum this year by the Trump administration.
“He was vetted and the vetting came up clean,” the reporter pointed out.
“He went cuckoo,” Trump replied. “I mean, he went nuts, and that happens too. It happens too often with these people.”
But Trump insisted that Afghan migrants were allowed in with no screening, and held up a photo of a crowded plane of asylum-seekers:
“There was no vetting or anything, they came in unvetted,” he said.
“Actually, your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S.,” she persisted. “So why do you blame the Biden administration?”
Trump did not like the question at all.
“Because they let ’em in,” he fired back. “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came into on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
Trump admin reexamining green cards linked to 19 countries after DC shooting
The Trump administration on Thursday said it would reexamine green cards linked to 19 countries after two National Guard members were shot outside of a metro station blocks from the White House.
“At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow wrote in a post on the social platform X.
"The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies. American safety is non-negotiable,” he added in a follow-up post.
A June memo from the Trump administration listed 19 countries of concern with entry restrictions. The nations highlighted include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Putin insists Ukraine has to surrender territory for any deal to be possible
Vladimir Putin has said that the outline of a draft peace plan discussed by the US and Ukraine could serve as a basis for future negotiations to end the war – but insisted Ukraine would have to surrender territory for any deal to be possible.
“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said, noting that the version of the plan discussed by Washington and Kyiv in Geneva had been shared with Moscow.
“We see that the American side takes our position into account in some areas,” he added. “But in otMore...her points, we clearly need to sit down and talk.”
The Russian president’s uncompromising remarks – in which he again described Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “illegitimate” – suggested that, despite White House optimism, there is little sign of movement on the core sticking points needed to end the war.
Speaking to reporters during a working visit to Kyrgyzstan, Putin said Russia would halt its offensive only if Ukrainian forces withdrew from unspecified areas currently under Kyiv’s control. “If Ukrainian troops leave the territories they occupy, then we will stop fighting,” he said. “If they don’t, we will achieve our aims militarily.”
TVNL Comment: Putin will show the world that invading a foreign country has its rewards. Demand land before peace. It isn't enough that he took Crimea with no opposition. Now he wants more.
Palestinian-American teenager held in Israeli prison freed after nine months
A 16-year-old American citizen was freed on Thursday after spending nine months in an Israeli prison.
Mohammed Ibrahim, a Palestinian-American teenager from Florida whose case was first exposed by the Guardian in July, was released following a guilty plea and suspended sentence, according to his family. Relatives said he was taken to a hospital for intravenous therapy and blood work immediately after his release, and noted he is severely underweight, pale and is still suffering from scabies contracted during his detention. Ibrahim had lost a quarter of his body weight in detention, his family said.
“Words can’t describe the immense relief we have as a family right now, to have Mohammed in his parents’ arms,” Zeyad Kadur, a close family friend, wrote in a statement, adding the family “has been living a horrific and endless nightmare” over the last nine months.
“Israeli soldiers had no right to take Mohammed from us in the first place,” he said.
Ibrahim was arrested in a raid on his family’s West Bank home in February when he was still 15 years old, with Israeli forces allegedly blindfolding and handcuffing him in the middle of the night. He was charged with two counts of throwing objects at moving vehicles, according to court documents reviewed by the Guardian.
The case first gained attention after 20-year-old American-Palestinian Sayfollah Musallet was allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers in mid-July. While reporting on his story, the Guardian learned that his younger cousin Mohammed Ibrahim had been held since February. No arrests have been made in Musallet’s killing, though Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador, called it a “criminal and terrorist act” and demanded Israel “aggressively investigate the murder”.
National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom dies after DC shooting. Updates
One of the two National Guard members shot in what authorities described as a "targeted" ambush near the White House has died, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.
"Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we’re talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way. She’s just passed away," Trump said in a Thanksgiving call to service members from Palm Beach, Florida.
"She's just passed away. She's no longer with us," Trump continued. "She's looking down at us right now. Her parents are with her."
Andrew Wolfe, the other National Guard member who was shot near the White House, remained in critical condition, is "fighting for his life" and was in "very bad shape," according to the president.
The troops were part of a "high-visibility patrol,” about two blocks from the White House, when the shooting occurred, authorities said. The suspect was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, an Afghan national from Washington state.
The suspect’s motive has not been determined. He was shot by a nearby National Guard member and remained hospitalized in "serious condition" as of Thursday," according to authorities and Trump.
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