A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India killed at least 60 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, adding the toll could rise. Attendees had rushed to leave the makeshift tent following an event with Hindu figure Bhole Baba, local media reported. Video of the aftermath showed the structure appeared to have collapsed. Women wailed over the dead. Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures. Police officer Rajesh Singh said overcrowding may have been a factor in the stampede in a village in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh state, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the U.S. will soon announce an additional $2.3 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, to include anti-tank weapons, interceptors and munitions for Patriot and other air defense systems. The announcement came as Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov met with Austin at the Pentagon. And it marks a strong response to pleas from Kyiv for help in battling Russian forces in the Donetsk region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had dropped more than 800 powerful glide bombs in Ukraine in the last week alone. And he urged national leaders to relax restrictions on the use of Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu strongly condemned the release of Shifa Hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya from custody, calling it a “severe mistake and ethical failure.” Abu Salmiya was arrested in November for allegedly allowing Hamas to use the hospital as a center of operations. “This man, under whose responsibility our hostages were held and murdered, belongs in prison,” Netanyahu said. He has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the release, which he claims was made without the knowledge or approval of the political echelon or security agency heads. The investigation, to be led by Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, will present its findings to the Prime Minister on Tuesday.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, long known for her hysterical outbursts, has threatened to bring articles of impeachment against the Supreme Court justices following Monday’s ruling granting former President Trump immunity from prosecution. The ruling stated that a president has absolute immunity for actions within their constitutional authority and presumptive immunity for official acts, sparking outrage among congressional Democrats. The Supreme Court’s ruling did not specify whether Trump’s alleged actions pertaining to charges he faces of attempting to subvert the 2020 election fell under his constitutional powers, leaving that determination to a lower court. “The Supreme Court has become consumed by a corruption crisis beyond its control,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.

The IDF announced that its troops located and demolished the largest Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket manufacturing site found to date in southern Gaza’s Rafah. The site, located in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, was raided by troops from the Commando Brigade, 401st Armored Brigade, and the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit. According to the IDF, the underground facility was used by Islamic Jihad to manufacture rocket parts and long-range rockets, producing hundreds of projectiles in recent years. The site was identified as the terrorist organization’s largest rocket manufacturing hub in the Gaza Strip. During the raid, IDF commandos and elite combat engineers engaged in intense battles with gunmen both above and below ground.

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A man was wounded in a shooting attack at Mitzpeh Yosef, near the yishuv of Har Bracha in the Shomron early Tuesday afternoon. Paramedics administered emergency medical aid to the victim, who was shot in the upper half of his body, and evacuated him to the hospital in light condition. The IDF is investigating the possibility that he was shot by a Palestinian sniper who shot at the area from Shechem. Baruch Hashem, since the victim was shot from a distance, his injury is not life-threatening. A large number of IDF forces arrived in the area. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The IDF on Tuesday announced that two reserve soldiers were killed in the central Gaza Strip on Monday evening. The soldiers were identified as Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Elchanan Knoller, H’yd, 30, from Jerusalem who served as a platoon sergeant in the 121st Battalion of the 8th Reserve Armored Brigade, and Maj. (res.) Eyal Avnion, H’yd, from Hod Hasharon, who served as a deputy commander in the 121st Battalion of the 8th Reserve Armored Brigade. Eleven soldiers were injured in the incident, including one seriously, three moderately, and one lightly. Additionally, a soldier in the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion was seriously wounded by anti-tank fire in Rafah in southern Gaza. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

An IDF soldier was killed and another soldier was seriously wounded when a roadside bomb exploded during a counterterrorism operation near Tulkarm on Monday morning, the IDF announced on Monday evening. The soldier was identified as Sgt. First Class (res.) Yehuda Geto, H’YD, 22, from Pardes Chana-Karkur. Geto, z’l, was driving an armored personnel carrier in Nur Shams, a Palestinian “refugee camp” near Tulkarm, when a large bomb exploded. Kan News reported that an initial investigation showed that the road they were traveling on had not been “scraped” by armored bulldozers to uncover hidden explosives, contrary to regulations. The IDF said that there was no suspicion that there were hidden explosives on the route they were traveling on.

Current and former White House aides are still shocked over President Joe Biden’s performance during Thursday’s debate, leading some to question whether he could fulfill a second term. Aides have carefully shielded Biden from people inside and outside the White House since the beginning of his presidency, which has resulted in intermittent access and a lack of awareness about his abilities – but nothing could shield them from his performance at the debate.

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