[Tee tiong huat]

Trufanov was taken hostage along with three members of his family — grandmother Irena Tati, mother Yelena (Lena) Trufanova and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen — from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 Hamas massacre in the Gaza border town. Trufanova and Tati were released by Hamas on November 29 at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Cohen was released on November 30 as part of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Sasha Trufanov is an engineer employed at Annapurna Labs, an Israeli microelectronics company purchased by Amazon.

He and Cohen had recently moved in together in a Ramat Gan apartment, so when the Gaza border communities were attacked by Hamas terrorists in what became a massacre of hundreds, his friends didn’t know at first that he was visiting his family there. Last month, the Hamas terror group said Trufanov and another hostage with Russian citizenship, Maxim Herkin, will be among the first to be released during an eventual hostage deal.

[Tee tiong huat]

In Lebanon, Hezbollah pays high political cost for its war with Israel. Usually far from the war’s front lines, the Christian residents of this quiet mountain village in northern Lebanon are still traumatized by the Oct. 12 blast that turned two houses to rubble in a tiny Shiite enclave in their midst. The targeted Israeli strike, which reportedly killed three people, shook the hillside like an earthquake – and produced a cloud of shredded bits of $100 bills that witnesses suggest may have been a Hezbollah stash of cash. The incident, has deepened Lebanon’s sectarian divide, underscored the increasingly high political cost paid by Iran-backed Hezbollah for its destructive war with Israel.

Hezbollah has wielded immense power in Lebanon for decades. But it has been substantially weakened by a string of shocks from Israel, ranging from exploding pagers that wounded thousands of its operatives to airstrikes that killed 20 of its top leaders and commanders.

Thousands of airstrikes have targeted its missile arsenal and even its banking system, and a ground incursion has revealed networks of tunnels near Israel’s border. As a result, swaths of territory have been demolished, afflicting every Lebanese sect.

What Trump’s historic victory says about America
“There's rising tide of anger [against Hezbollah] among Shias, amongst broader Lebanese social fabric,” says Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, “a lot of tension on the ground, & prospect of civil strife is quite high.” “We have nothing to do with this war”
 https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-E...ns-shiites

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New Fear Divides Lebanon: Where People Flee, Bombs Follow

Tensions among multiple sects in the country have long lurked just below the surface. As hundreds of thousands flee Israeli airstrikes in the south, those strains are worsening.

[Tee tiong huat]

New Fear Divides Lebanon: Where People Flee, Bombs Follow

Tensions among multiple sects in the country have long lurked just below the surface. As hundreds of thousands flee Israeli airstrikes in the south, those strains are worsening.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/world...mbing.html

[Tee tiong huat]

Usually far from the war’s front lines, the Christian residents of this quiet mountain village in northern Lebanon are still traumatized by the Oct. 12 blast that turned two houses to rubble in a tiny Shiite enclave in their midst. The targeted Israeli strike, which reportedly killed three people, shook the hillside like an earthquake – and produced a cloud of shredded bits of $100 bills that witnesses suggest may have been a Hezbollah stash of cash. The incident, has deepened Lebanon’s sectarian divide, underscored the increasingly high political cost paid by Iran-backed Hezbollah for its destructive war with Israel.

Thousands of airstrikes have targeted its missile arsenal and even its banking system, and a ground incursion has revealed networks of tunnels near Israel’s border. As a result, swaths of territory have been demolished, afflicting every Lebanese sect.

What Trump’s historic victory says about America
“There's rising tide of anger [against Hezbollah] among Shias, amongst broader Lebanese social fabric,” says Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, “a lot of tension on the ground, & prospect of civil strife is quite high.” “We have nothing to do with this war”
 https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-E...ns-shiites

In Lebanon, Hezbollah pays high political cost for its war with Israel. Hezbollah has wielded immense power in Lebanon for decades. But it leadership has been substantially weakened by a string of shocks from Israel, ranging from exploding pagers to killing the Hezbollah biggest boss and wounded thousands of its operatives to airstrikes that killed at least 20 of its top leaders and commanders. Meanwhile...F-15E Pilot Recounts Having To Switch To Guns After Missiles Ran Dry During Iranian Drone Barrage.

The F-15E crew's story is one of many that night, with the type swatting down over 70 Iranian drones in a matter of hours. After shooting down so many Iranian drones headed toward Israel that their F-15E Strike Eagle ran out of air-to-air missiles, the jet’s crew decided they would go after one more. 

Ordered to use any weapon available, pilot Maj. Benjamin “Irish” Coffey and weapons systems officer (WSO) Capt. Lacie “Sonic” Hester dropped altitude and speed to approach the low and slow-flying drone. Though Coffey and Hester could barely see it, they unleashed a volley from the Strike Eagle’s 20mm Gatling Gun, which can fire upwards of 6,000 rounds per minute.

[Tee tiong huat]

Israel drops massive bomb in Beirut strike, as Lebanon mulls cease-fire. Israel has stepped up strikes on the city’s southern suburbs in recent days, an area Israeli officials say hosts Hezbollah militants and infrastructure..

Lebanon’s prime minister asks Iran to help secure a cease-fire in Israel-Hezbollah war.  Nov 16, 2024

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister on Friday asked Iran to help secure a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah and appeared to urge it to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border. As a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei visited Lebanon for talks, Lebanese officials said an American proposal for a cease-fire deal had been passed on to Hezbollah, aiming to end 13 months of exchanges of fire between Israel and the group.

Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 ignited the war in Gaza – prompting exchanges between the two sides ever since. Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80% of them in the past month -- Lebanon’s said.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hezbol...34f54fbc17

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Inside Story: We've spent over NIS 4m on drip irrigation; we couldn't wait' Still waiting for Oct. 7 compensation, a Gaza border farm community sows fields anew terrorists murdered 22 foreign workers at Kibbutz Alumim; the destruction of equipment & loss of crops are staggering, the community is looking to future & replanting, a Thai worker picks last of the sweet mini-peppers at Kibbutz Alumim, in southern Israel, on November 3, 2024.

ALUMIM, Gaza — Where potato fields of Kibbutz Alumim meet those of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, one of Alumim’s salaried farmers, Elyada Yovel, from West Bank settlement southwest of Hebron, opens his arms wide to hug two Bedouin laborers he hasn’t seen for some time.“Ahlan!” he cries out in Arabic. The 2, from Bedouin town of Rahat, respond in kind.

It’s sowing time for some potato varieties, and Yovel plunges his hands into the sandy ridges to check the depth at which the spuds have been planted. “Yup, right depth,” he says, as a tractor approaches with another load to insert into the soil. We have driven out to the Gaza border, past the single wall that remains of the workers’ residential area, burned-out chicken sheds, vandalized hothouses, and charred piles of irrigation equipment that were byproducts of Hamas’s murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Today, standing in the fields, which reach right up to the Gaza border, you can see piles of rubble on the periphery of Gaza City inside the Strip. The blur of the Mediterranean Sea is just beyond. The rubble is located within a security belt that IDF has cleared on Gazan side of border to improve visibility with an eye toward ensuring that Hamas invasion like the one that killed 1,200 people saw 251 taken hostage a year ago can never happen again. Elyada Yovel an unnamed Bedouin farm laborer check depth of potato seeds at Kibbutz Alumim, southern Israel, Nov 3, 2024.

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U.S. positions 12,000 sailors off Israel with second carrier with 10 American ships from 2 strike groups are intended to deter a wider conflict, in the Mediterranean Sea. It world's largest aircraft carrier, refuels in the eastern on Oct.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Israel-...nd-carrier

A year after it first laid down plans to acquire 40 Eurofighter Typhoons, there are signs that Turkey is finally on the verge of acquiring the cutting-edge aircraft following a “positive response” from Germany. Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler first announced his country’s intention to buy the Eurofighter Typhoon produced by the European consortium of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain on November 16, 2023. Soon after, all members—except Germany—approved the sale of these advanced multi-role fighters to Ankara. While Germany remained unwavering in its stance for over a year, there is an indication that the country is finally changing its mind and is poised to lift the ban on the sale of the aircraft.
https://www.eurasiantimes.com/we-will-ac...r-typhoon/

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Pope Francis calls for probe to determine if Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’

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WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden's administration has allowed Ukraine to use long-range US missiles against targets inside Russia, a significant reversal of Washington's policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, two US officials and a source familiar with the decision said on Sunday (Nov 17), without revealing details due to operational security concerns.

[Tee tiong huat]

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden's administration has allowed Ukraine to use long-range US missiles against targets inside Russia, a significant reversal of Washington's policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, two US officials and a source familiar with the decision said on Sunday (Nov 17), without revealing details due to operational security concerns.

Missile is made by US defence group Lockheed Martin and has a top range of 300km. Putin has warned that the use of ATACMS inside Russia would mean the NATO alliance being "at war" with his country - a threat he made previously when Ukraine's Western backers escalated their military assistance.

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Total = 11

But most are queuing up for major service and maintenance.

PM Wong congratulates Trump on winning US election in phone call with president-elect

SINGAPORE: Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Tuesday (Nov 19) that he had spoken to US president-elect Donald Trump and congratulated him on his election victory in a phone call.

In a Facebook post, Mr Wong noted that the US-Singapore partnership is "strong and dynamic", and is "built on a deep reservoir of mutual trust and shared interests".

[cityhantam]

In a Facebook post, Mr Wong noted that the US-Singapore partnership is "strong and dynamic", and is "built on a deep reservoir of mutual trust and shared interests".

He forgot one word : unpredictable! 

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11 nuclear powered carriers across the 7 oceans ....  basically they can run forever ... just need to self maintain at sea

American-made weapons for Ukraine in the ongoing war reaches its 1,000-day. 

Putin said is a milestone.

[Tee tiong huat]

American-made weapons for Ukraine in the ongoing war reaches its 1,000-day. 

Putin said is a milestone.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024...Foreign Minister Sa’ar says Hezbollah ceasefire should be durable, sees opportunity for Lebanon. Gideon Sa'ar speaking to foreign diplomats in Jerusalem on November 20, 2024. (Shlomi Amsalem/Foreign Ministry). He speaking to almost 100 foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that Israel “would like to reach an agreement that will stand the test of time” in Lebanon. “We need to keep the freedom to act if its violations,” he says as ceasefire talks continue in Beirut. “And we will have to act in time, before the problem will grow.”

Israel insists that it will strike Hezbollah even if a ceasefire is signed, if it is attacked or it observes attempts by Hezbollah to send forces south of the Litani River or rearm through Syria, by sea, or through civilian airports.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_e...r-lebanon/

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Katz imposes economic sanctions on Hezbollah to 'dismantle terror'.  We will not allow Hezbollah and its supporters to continue funding terrorism against the State of Israel," said Katz.

Defense Minister Israel Katz imposed sanctions against 24 major clients of Al-Qard Al-Hasan, a financial institution affiliated with Hezbollah, the Defense Ministry announced on Thursday.