The IDF announced that the Israeli Air Force has launched a series of intensive airstrikes over the past 24 hours, hitting approximately 220 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon. The targets included key terrorist infrastructure sites, rocket launchers responsible for firing projectiles into Israeli territory, Hezbollah militants, and weapons storage facilities. This large-scale operation is part of an ongoing effort by the IDF to degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities and dismantle their infrastructure. The strikes are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch future attacks on Israel and are part of a broader campaign to protect Israeli civilians from cross-border threats. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Rocket sirens blared across Tel Aviv and much of central Israel late Thursday night, with alerts sounding as far south as the Lachish Regional Council, around 12:40 a.m. The IDF said that the sirens were triggered by a missile fired from Yemen. An interceptor was immediately launched, and the missile was successfully intercepted by Israel’s Arrow Aerial Defense System. Following the interception, residents reported hearing sirens and explosions, which were the result of falling shrapnel. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Ukraine’s air defenses battled an overnight Russian aerial attack on the capital Kyiv for five hours, officials said Thursday, as missiles and drones again hammered the Ukrainian power grid. The Kyiv attack injured at least two people, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said. A kindergarten, a gas pipe and around 20 cars were damaged in the city, said the Kyiv Military Administration. In western Ukraine, the air force said, Russia fired three Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles — one of Russia’s most advanced weapons — “in the direction of” Starokostiantyniv, a city in the Khmelnytskyi region, on Thursday morning. The air force said it could not make further information public, suggesting the missiles were aimed at a sensitive site.

Changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine are intended to discourage Ukraine’s Western allies from supporting attacks on Russia, the Kremlin said Thursday. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the revisions in the document announced by President Vladimir Putin are a “warning signal to those countries about the consequences in case of their involvement in an attack on our country with various assets, not necessarily nuclear ones.” In a strong, new warning to the West, Putin said Wednesday that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.

An official from the IDF Southern Command has accused the military of covering up the truth about its response to the Hamas attack on October 7. Testifying anonymously before an independent civilian commission, the official alleged that internal investigations conducted by the IDF were riddled with conflicts of interest and failed to reveal the true events. The official claimed that almost every investigation led by IDF ground forces was far from accurate, saying, “They are motivated by a strategy of protecting each other.” He raised concerns about a colonel tasked with leading a probe, who was set for promotion by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, questioning how such an officer could conduct an impartial investigation.

A fire broke out today at the ancient Eshtamoa Shul in the South Chevron Hills, located in the Palestinian town of as-Samu in the southern West Bank. The blaze, which occurred amid the archaeological ruins of the shuls, is being investigated by Israeli authorities. Jewish activists have condemned the incident as a hate crime, alleging that the fire was deliberately set by individuals who arrived at the site early in the morning. A spokesperson for the Israel Police’s Yehuda District confirmed that the IDF had reported a fire in the area and said authorities are investigating the cause. The IDF has not yet commented on the fire’s origin.

Eating in is in and eating out is out. That’s the message that inflation-squeezed consumer s have been sending to fast-food companies and other restaurants. Meanwhile food producers are benefitting from more palatable prices in grocery store aisles. Inflation has been easing broadly for more than a year now, and it’s been cooling faster for grocery items since the middle of the year. The current trend marks a reversal from previous years when grocery inflation outpaced restaurants as food producers raised prices, often fattening their profit margins. The shift has been weighing on McDonald’s, Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants, and similar chains. Orlando-based Darden reported a 1.1% sales drop at restaurants open for at least a year.

A federal judge on Wednesday directed New York City officials to begin developing a plan for a possible federal takeover of Rikers Island, following a hearing in Manhattan in a long-running case over abuse, mismanagement and other chronic problems at one of the nation’s largest and most notorious jails. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain stopped short of issuing a formal order handing the jail system over to federal authorities, but she said city officials should meet in the coming days with federal officials and inmate advocates to sketch out a potential path forward. She instructed them to develop by Nov.

As the IDF continues to carry out strikes against Hezbollah targets through Lebanon as part of Operation Northern Arrows, the IDF announced early Thursday afternoon that its forces recently attacked Hezbollah infrastructure on the Syrian-Lebanese border, the first such step since the war began. The infrastructure is used to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. “Hezbollah is using these weapons against the citizens of the State of Israel,” the IDF spokesperson said.