"Both US and Israeli officials have told The Wall Streat Journal in a breaking major development that Israel has decided to further stall its planned ground invasion of Gaza, at the request of Washington.
Though airstrikes have been ramped up - it has become clear in the last several days that Israel has been waiting in terms of a ground assault. This also as four hostages have been freed due to negotiations involving Qatari mediation with Hamas. The WSJ frames this further delay, however, as related to putting additional air defense from the US in place.
"The Pentagon is scrambling to deploy nearly a dozen air-defense systems to the region, including for U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to protect them from missiles and rockets,"."ZH
"Explosions that happened today near the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (KhNPP), did not affect its operation. However, several buildings on the plant's premises were damaged, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)." AP
"Russian forces are edging forwards around the Ukrainian fortress city of Avdiivka
the war-torn east of the country, according to fresh reports from the Donetsk battlefield, despite mounting troop and equipment losses." Newsweek
"The Russian army now possesses air defense missile systems that have shot down a total of
24 Ukrainian jets in five days.....The S-400 is an advanced Russian mobile surface-to-air missile system that can defend against a variety of airborne threats, including combat aircraft and cruise missiles." S
"A series of loud explosions occurred in the Russian city of Bryansk.....up to ten explosionswere heard in various parts of the city, which are allegedly linked to the activity of anti-aircraft defense systems against unidentified drones." BNN
"With all the chaos and heartbreaking loss of life around the world today, few noticed the Treasury Department drop a financial bomb: the deficit for fiscal year 2023 was $1.7 trillion, growing 23 percent in a single year as the Treasury used $879 billion just to service the federal debt. But Bidenomics means the worst is yet to come, and multi-trillion-dollar deficits are the new normal.The impetus for these massive deficits is federal government spending, which tipped the scales at $6.1 trillion last year. Government receipts, meanwhile, were $4.4 trillion, woefully short of the $5 trillion previously forecasted. A slowing economy and counterproductive tax increases were key drivers behind the $457 billion drop in receipts from the prior fiscal year.
Elevated spending levels in 2020 should’ve been one-time emergency measures, but the Biden administration institutionalized $6-trillion budgets by simply replacing pandemic-era outlays with the Biden agenda....the $1.7-trillion deficit in the last fiscal year was really a $2-trillion deficit. It was reduced only in a technical sense by $300 billion when the Supreme Court blocked Mr. Biden’s student loan handout scheme. The Treasury has merely reallocated that money to be spent in fiscal year 2024 because the Biden administration is hellbent on achieving its unconstitutional student loan bailout......In other words, the unfunded spending has merely been moved from one ledger column to another. Of that $300 billion, tens of billions have already been allocated to selective student loan bailouts, while the rest will fund a broader bailout beginning next summer, known as the SAVE repayment plan, an end-run around the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Biden administration.....It has resulted in a truly unprecedented level of federal debt: now more than $33.5 trillion. The breakneck pace of borrowing is increasing almost daily, with the Treasury borrowing $500 billion just in the first three weeks of the current fiscal year, which began October 1.
Consequently, investors are demanding higher yields when lending money to the Treasury, which is increasing the cost to service the debt. As massive deficits continue growing the debt, gross interest outlays are exploding as new debt is issued at higher interest rates.
The icing on the cake is that the Treasury doesn’t actually pay off debt when it matures. It simply issues new debt to pay off the old, along with the interest." FB
"The arrogance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is causing problems with Kyiv’sallies and he believes that, as his country is at war, he can do anything, his former adviser has claimed. In a bombshell interview with Polish news outlet dorzeczy.pl, Oleksyi Arestovych slammed his former boss for his increasingly overbearing behavior and believes he has fallen victim to delusions of grandeur and a belief that he is all-powerful.
Arestovych cited Zelensky’s response to the ongoing diplomatic conflict over the dumping of Ukrainian grain as an example, accusing the president’s office of “behaving as if it has a decisive voice in the European Union rather than being a country aspiring to join the bloc.”
The former adviser, expressed his fear that Zelensky “has become deluded into thinking he now rules the globe.”
His diplomacy concentrates on making demands and using moral blackmail to claim Ukraine is fighting for the West, said Arestovych, who claimed this tactic may have been successful at the beginning of the conflict but is no longer effective." ZH
"The deficit of ammunition is currently being felt not only in Ukraine but also worldwide. Thelevel of this shortage is "huge," as the warehouses are empty, says Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal.
"We have a huge deficit of ammunition not just in Ukraine but all over the world," he said." BNN
"Russia has intensified its tactical aviation in the Black Sea waters. Today, they used an unknown explosive device...."For several days we have not observed any approach to the sea lanes and the dropping of unknown explosive devices. Today, it intensified, and four unknown devices were dropped, evidently attempting to harm civilian navigation and discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine," stated Humeniuk." AP
"Israel demanded the resignation of the UN secretary-general over “shocking” comments inwhich he suggested that the Oct 7 attack was provoked by the “suffocating occupation” of the Palestinian territories." MS
"At a simple shooting range outside Kyiv, a group of 20 Russian citizens clad in Ukrainianuniforms practiced firing assault rifles and machine guns.
Soon, they expect to be taking aim at the Russian army.
Their commander, a Ukrainian who introduced himself by the callsign Batya, said some of the recruits to Ukraine's newly-formed Siberian Battalion, the yellow and blue flag on their sleeves, were now ready for battle. The officer said most are from among the indigenous peoples of Siberia and recruits said they want to fight against what they said was Russian imperialism both inside Ukraine and in their homelands." MS
"JPMorgan Chase (JPM) head honcho Jamie Dimon issued a stark warning to investors as geopolitical tensions are reaching a boiling point around the world.
“This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades,” the CEO said. He warned the ongoing war in Ukraine and the latest war between Israel and Hamas could have “far-reaching impacts on energy and food markets, global trade, and geopolitical relationships.” CNBC
"Russia’s military said it had detected three Ukrainian seaborne drones off the coast ofannexed Crimea.....Around 4:00 a.m. Moscow time, technical surveillance systems detected three unmanned Ukrainian Navy boats in the northern Black Sea....anti-mine and anti-diversion measures is being carried out in the outer roadstead of Sevastopol Bay." MT
"White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was left scrambling for an explanation after areporter asked why Joe Biden wasn’t “doing a better job preventing these wars in the first place.” Karine began by assuring that the Biden administration’s goal “has always been a prosperous Middle East, a peaceful Middle East,” but claimed now it’s focused on reacting to the wars in Ukraine and Israel that have since broken out." IW
"Citing sources on the ground, the Lebanon-based news channel Al-Mayadeen reported that“explosions could be heard” at the Al-Omar oilfield in Deir ez-Zor province. There were also reports of drone strikes on Al-Shaddadi in Hasakah province and on At-Tanf, the heavily fortified American base in the south of Syria. Up to 1,000 US troops are currently deployed in Syria, occupying key oil fields and Euphrates river crossings with the support of a Kurdish-led militia." RT
