Friday, November 17, 2023

11/17 WAKE-UP CALL: Israel Releases Tunnel Footage

Israel released footage of tunnels at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital. It is the first evidence to support the country’s claims that Hamas’s vast tunnel network runs underneath the medical facility. With pressure mounting to justify sending in troops, Israel said it was combing through the complex. Hamas denied the claims that it used the hospital as a command center and requested that international organizations review Al-Shifa. 

The Israeli military reported finding the corpse of a female hostage Hamas abducted during its Oct. 7 attacks in a home near the hospital, along with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Al-Shifa’s director said Israeli soldiers had taken dead bodies from the courtyard; the Israeli military declined to comment. Nearby fighting and a lack of electricity have made treating patients significantly difficult, according to hospital staff. An Israeli military official said information relating to Hamas’s estimated 240 hostages had been found on computers and other devices.

➤BODY OF HOSTAGE FOUND: As Israeli forces combed through Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital for traces of Hamas for another day, the body of one of the approximately 240 people kidnapped in Israel during the Oct. 7 Hamas rampage was recovered in a building nearby, the Israeli military said Thursday. Newborns and hundreds of other patients have suffered for days without electricity and other basic necessities in the hospital. Now, Israel is under pressure to prove its claim that Hamas had turned the hospital into a command center that launched its brutal attack that killed about 1,200 people and provoked Israel's reprisal seeking to dislodge the militant group from Gaza. 

➤CONCERNS GROW ABOUT HAMAS ATTACKS IN US: The FBI is chasing down an increasing number of tips and leads related to threats by the terrorist group Hamas to launch an attack on U.S. soil, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in testimony to Congress yesterday. Since the deadly attack on Israel, Wray said, “We’ve seen a rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against America and our allies.” The FBI is seeking reauthorization of an electronic surveillance tool, set to expire at the end of this year.

➤BIDEN SIGNS STOPGAP BILL: President Joe Biden signed a stopgap bill to extend government funding into early 2024, averting a government shutdown for now but kicking a politically-divisive debate over federal spending into a presidential election year. The White House confirmed the move in a statement early Friday morning in Washington, less than a day before existing funding would have expired. Biden — in California for a summit of APEC leaders — signed the legislation on Thursday, according to the statement. Facing that Friday night deadline and with the House under new leadership, Congress passed an interim measure with broad bipartisan majorities earlier this week.

➤SENATORS CALL FOR FDIC CHAIR TO RESIGN: Three Republican senators called for FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg to resign. The GOP members of the agency’s board want him to recuse himself from an investigation into its workplace culture. The comments of Sens. John Kennedy (R., La.), Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) and Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) come after the WSJ reported on allegations that Gruenberg had ignored misconduct at the FDIC and revealed that the work environment had driven many female bank examiners to quit over the years. The agency canceled a public board meeting scheduled for today. In a joint statement, FDIC Vice Chairman Travis Hill and director Jonathan McKernan said the investigation must examine all conduct described in the WSJ’s reporting and called for the agency’s general counsel, Harrel Pettway, to recuse himself, too.

➤BIDEN POLLS NOT GOOD: President Joe Biden continues to face negative poll after negative poll in his re-election campaign, with a new survey showing him trailing three GOP rivals by as much as 10 points.  Biden, the oldest president in American history, turns 81 on Monday and already saw a poll today showing a majority of Democrats nationally want to see another Democrat enter the race to primary him.  A poll from Marquette Law School shows the president trailing his predecessor, Donald Trump, by a 52 to 48 margin. However, Trump's not the only GOP hopeful getting the best of Biden.

Former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley leads Biden by a whopping 10 points, 55 to 45.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who many saw as Trump's toughest challenger in the Republican Primary, leads him by a 51 to 49 advantage.

➤ETHCS REPORT: SANTOS COMMITTED CRIMES: The House Ethics Committee released its long-awaited report on embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., concluding there is "substantial evidence that Representative Santos violated federal criminal laws." The committee said it would be referring its findings to the Department of Justice as it pursues a criminal case against Santos on charges including money laundering, wire fraud and lying to Congress. Santos blasted the report, which contained over 170,000 pages of documents, testimony from witnesses and financial statements, calling it “biased” and an effort to smear him and his legal team. He also said he will not be seeking reelection in 2024 for a second term.



➤PROTEST RATTLES DNC HEADQUARTERS: Some 90 protesters and six police officers were hurt when violence broke out during a Washington demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. About 150 people participated in the demonstration outside Democratic National Committee headquarters, according to local news station WTOP. The protest group’s organizers told Politico they are a “multi-faith coalition of Jewish, Palestinian and other peace activists calling on Democratic leadership to push for a ceasefire in this horrific war.”In Ventura County, California, a college professor and pro-Palestinian protester has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a Jewish man during a clash between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinians on November 5th.

➤PELOSI ATTACKER FOUND GUILTY:  A Canadian man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer in his San Francisco home has been found guilty. David DePape, a former nudist from Canada, entered the Pelosis' mansion through a back door in the early hours of October 28, 2022, and bludgeoned former House Speaker Nancy's 82-year-old husband Paul. DePape was convicted of attempted kidnapping and of assault on the immediate family member of a federal official. 

➤DIDDY FACING ALLEGATIONS: Sean “Diddy” Combs was accused Thursday of rape and repeated physical abuse for over a decade by his ex-girlfriend Cassie, an R&B singer once signed to his label, according to a new bombshell lawsuit. The suit — which was filed in Manhattan federal court with a glaring “trigger warning” — alleged the legendary music producer and rapper trafficked, raped and viciously beat Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, starting in 2005 and up until 2018. Among the allegations, the “Me & U” singer, 37, claims Combs, 54, regularly fed her drugs and alcohol, forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed the encounters and blew up Kid Cudi’s car when he learned the rapper was romantically interested in her. When she tried to leave the relationship in 2018, the Revolt CEO allegedly forced Ventura into her own home and raped her. When reached for comment, Ventura told Page Six, “After years in silence and darkness. I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships. “With the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act fast approaching, it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life.”

🏈NFL RAVENS 34 BENGLS 20: Lamar Jackson completed 16 of 26 passes for 264 yards and threw a pair of touchdown passes to lead the Baltimore Ravens past the visiting Cincinnati Bengals 34-20 on Thursday. Gus Edwards added a pair of touchdown runs for the Ravens (8-3), who won their fifth game in six outings. The game was marred by the loss of Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow to a wrist injury in the second quarter. Jackson came out on fire, completing passes of 14 yards to Mark Andrews and 33 yards to Zay Flowers on the opening drive. Those passes set the stage for a 3-yard touchdown run by Edwards.

⚾ACUNA AND OHTANI ARE MVPS: Ronald Acuna Junior of the Atlanta Braves was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America yesterday. Shohei Ohtani, now a free agent, got the American League MVP award for the second time in three years even though he missed the last month of the season due to an injury. (He came in second last year.) The voting for both players was unanimous.

⚾OAKLAND A’S MOVE TO VEGAS FINALIZED: The owners of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball have unanimously approved the Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas. The team will play their 2024 season at the Oakland Coliseum. Their lease expires at that time. No decision has been made on what they do between then and 2028, when their new stadium in Las Vegas is expected to be finished.

✞‘JUMPIN’ JOHNNY’ GREEN DIES AT AGE 89: Johnny Green, the All-Star forward for the New York Knicks known as “Jumpin’ Johnny” for his high-flying leaps on the court, has died at the age of 89. Green was an all-American at Michigan State and a first-round pick for the Knicks in 1959. He played in Baltimore, San Diego, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Kansas City before retiring in 1973.



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