Hegseth’s team forces out another top Pentagon general, officials say

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/10/29/hegseths-team-forces-out-lt-gen-brett-sylvia-officials-say/

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his team have forced out another top general at the Pentagon, the latest in a long-running purge of senior military officials, four people familiar with the matter said.

Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia served as director for strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff, reporting to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Caine’s staff released a statement Wednesday night thanking Sylvia for his 32 years of service, without explaining what precipitated his departure.

Hegseth’s team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Since becoming defense secretary last year, he has removed dozens of senior military leaders but seldom discloses his rationale.

Obama on Trump's reaction to Cheesecake Factory joke: He wasn't 'upset' by Saddam Hussein reference

With 90% of votes counted, Netanyahu bloc has 53 seats, Eisenkot’s 48; Arab parties surge to 19

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-85-of-votes-counted-netanyahu-bloc-has-53-seats-eisenkots-48-arab-parties-surge-to-19/

The Central Election Committee (CEC) said Wednesday afternoon that with 89.8 percent of ballots counted, the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was poised to win 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, and the bloc led by Yashar party chair Gadi Eisenkot would win 48 seats, leaving both blocs far from a 61-seat majority.

The picture that was emerging by Wednesday evening was different from the one that had been painted in most mainstream polls in the weeks and months leading up to the election, which had almost all shown Eisenkot’s bloc taking the lead over Netanyahu’s with varying margins, though similarly without anyone having a clear path to a coalition.

The full vote count was therefore due to be released on Thursday afternoon. The final, official election results are expected to be published on November 4.

Trump’s babysitting of Netanyahu puts the US in charge on Gaza

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/23/middleeast/analysis-trump-bibisitting-netanyahu-gaza-latam-intl

An American official called it “Bibi-sitting” – a revolving door of the highest-ranking members of the Trump administration to make sure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, frequently known as “Bibi,” sticks to the US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We intend to stay engaged every single day to make sure peace takes hold,” Vance said at a news conference on Tuesday, unveiling a new US coordination center to monitor and assess real-time developments of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Trump says he saved Netanyahu from crushing election defeat - now, he wants influence

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-913131

From Gaza to Syria and Lebanon, Trump wants an Israeli government that advances his regional ambitions, even if it means sidelining Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

US President Donald Trump rushed to claim credit for Netanyahu’s election performance, even before it became clear whether the prime minister could form a government. But behind the celebration lies an important diplomatic message: The man who helped keep you in the game may also get to set the rules.

The most important sentence came at the end: “It all took place after the endorsement by President Trump, who only wants what is good for the Middle East, Israel, and the United States of America!”

Alexander brothers sentenced after women speak of being drugged, raped by them

https://fox8.com/news/alexander-brothers-sentenced-after-women-speak-of-being-drugged-raped-by-them/

Three brothers convicted of leveraging their wealthy lifestyle to drug and rape dozens of women were each sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison after one victim described her attack as an “eternity of terror” and the judge slammed their behavior as shameful, degenerate and monstrous.

Oren Alexander said he and his brothers came of age at the height of hookup culture and Howard Stern’s hypersexualized radio show. Looking back as a father, he said he regrets many of the things he said about women at that time. However, he insisted that they never broke the law.

All three brothers stressed their Jewish faith. Oren Alexander, wearing a yarmulke, said that even with the minimum 15-year sentence the defense sought, he’d miss his son’s bar mitzvah.

The brothers were unanimously convicted in March following a trial that lasted several weeks and included testimony from 11 women. According to prosecutors, the brothers used their wealth, status and access to luxury properties over more than two decades to lure women to parties, trips and vacation destinations, including mansions in the Hamptons and ski resorts in Aspen. There, some of the women were raped and sexually assaulted, in certain cases after being drugged.

Rabbi Sacks on God and Evil

US' JD Vance Rips Into ‘Psychopath’ Abdul El-Sayed, Blasts Democrat Over ‘Anti-White’ Hatred

With over 2 million votes counted, Netanyahu pulls ahead of Eisenkot but fails to reach 61

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-913053

Netanyahu, Eisenkot blocs still deadlocked despite coalition lead • Arab parties predicted to reach combined seat total of 16-19, complicating efforts to form coalition

No clear winner emerged in Israel’s election, according to exit polls published by Channels 11, 12, and 13 on Tuesday night, all of which showed both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition bloc seeking to replace him falling short of a 61-seat Knesset majority.

However, by Wednesday morning, some polls showed Netanyahu's bloc with a clear lead.

On Tuesday, the opposition bloc, comprising Yashar, B’Yachad, Yisrael Beytenu, and the Democrats, was projected to win 49-51 seats, compared with 51-52 for Netanyahu’s bloc. On Wednesday morning, the opposition bloc had fallen to 47 across all three channels, and Netanyahu's bloc was projected to win 53-57 mandates.

Trump: My endorsement turned the tide in Netanyahu's favor

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/435278

President Trump claims his endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu shifted the Israeli election outcome, turning what he called a likely defeat into a stalemate or victory.

“When President Trump endorsed Bibi Netanyahu, the whole tide turned, and now, rather than a decisive defeat for a Great Prime Minister, it looks like a big come-from-behind stalemate, or even a WIN for Netanyahu. It all took place AFTER the Endorsement by President Trump, who only wants what is good for the Middle East, Israel, and the United States of America!" he wrote.

"When you go to the Polls please remember that Bibi has been an outstanding Warrior Prime Minister! Israel was called The Little Satan, with the United States being called The Big Satan, by some very evil people. There can no longer be the chant heard around the World of 'Death to America, Death to Israel,' and there won’t be. Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!" Trump wrote in the second post.

No clear winner in Israeli vote, exit polls indicate

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/10/27/israel-votes-first-national-election-since-oct-7-2023-hamas-attack/

Israeli voters on Tuesday turned out in the highest numbers in decades, delivering results that remained uncertain hours after polls closed. Election authorities have begun a count that could last for days, leaving Israel to face a stretch of uncertainty over who will lead the next government, which could remain unclear even after the final vote is tallied.

Exit polls by Israeli television networks initially suggested that voters had denied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious coalition a return to majority control. Later polls indicated that his bloc and the one led by challenger Gadi Eisenkot are neck-and-neck, or gave Netanyahu’s a slight edge.

Black Death

 Garnel IronheartOctober 27, 2026 at 2:28 PM

Does he mention how the Ottomans brought the Black Death to Europe a few centuries earlier?

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AI 

The Black Death was brought to Europe primarily via Genoese merchant ships returning from the Black Sea in October 1347, which docked in Messina, Sicily.

How It Arrived

• The Origin: The bacterium responsible for the pandemic (Yersinia pestis) originated in Central or East Asia and traveled westward along the Silk Road and trade networks.

• The Siege of Caffa: During the Mongol siege of the Genoese trading outpost of Caffa in Crimea, the attacking Mongol forces under Janibeg famously catapulted plague-infected corpses over the city walls.

• The Vector: Flea-infested black rats and infected crew members boarded Genoese trading vessels fleeing Caffa and sailed into the Mediterranean.

Trump officials say men face a testosterone crisis. Experts say numbers tell different story

 https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/6176250-declining-testosterone-levels-analysis/

American men are facing a crisis in plummeting testosterone levels — at least according to several top Trump administration officials. But experts say there is key context that is being left out of the conversation, and the push towards hormone replacement therapy probably isn’t the panacea that officials believe it to be. 

Studies conducted in recent decades across the world in countries like the U.S., Denmark and more recently Israel have observed declining testosterone levels among men broadly. 

This is not an immediate indication of low testosterone, however, as the hormone can fluctuate widely throughout the day depending on someone’s health and fitness.

Trump Economic Chief Says Affordability Crisis Is ‘a Myth’: What Data Shows

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-economic-chief-says-affordability-crisis-myth-what-data-shows-12623578

Kevin Hassett, the director of President Donald Trump's National Economic Council, has dismissed the country's much-discussed affordability "crisis" as a "myth," arguing that official spending data proves Americans are significantly better off under the current administration.

"The amount of consumption per household has gone up maybe around $5,000 per household," he said in an interview with Fox Business on Monday. "That's after inflation, because of the income boom, the capital spending boom, the fact that people aren't losing their jobs. All the things that have made the economy great means that 'affordability crisis'—it's a myth!"

But economists say looking at the figures in this manner neglects the economic reality for most voters in the U.S., with Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, calling affordability "a serious problem for the majority of Americans."

"After inflation, wages are falling, personal saving rates are low, and borrowing costs are on the rise," he told Newsweek. "Overall spending has held up, but only because the well-to-do are doing fine financially, as their AI-powered stock prices have lifted their wealth."

Research from Moody's in 2025 showed that the richest U.S. households represent a record portion of overall consumer spending—with the top 10 percent of earners now accounting for roughly half. Zandi added that most Americans own few if any equities and have been "locked out" of the real-estate market thanks to elevated mortgage rates.