GOP probe of Afghanistan exit rips Biden, labors to implicate Harris

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/09/08/republican-afghanistan-report-harris-trump/

But while the GOP report contains some minor new details, there are no major revelations that go beyond prior reporting already in the public domain via separate investigations conducted by the Defense Department, the State Department, news outlets and analysts, as well as the foreign affairs committee itself. And it contains no evidence that Harris played a major role in the withdrawal’s execution.

Democrats on Sunday panned the new report and noted the total absence of Democratic involvement in its drafting. “It is a politicized, cherry-picked report … a nakedly partisan campaign thing,” the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” That is all it was “designed to do,” Himes said — “not shed light on a tragedy.”

GOP releases critical report of Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4868649-gop-report-afghanistan-withdrawal/

The report asserts that Biden was not bound by the Doha Agreement negotiated under the Trump administration, arguing it allowed for the dissolution of the deal if the Taliban did not meet its commitments.

But Biden has made clear he viewed the U.S. as too far down the path of withdrawal to shift its approach and that doing so would commit the military to once again engaging with the Taliban.

“The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban,” Biden said in a televised address in 2021.

Negotiators said to believe chance of hostage deal ‘close to zero’; US also pessimistic

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/negotiators-said-believe-chance-of-hostage-deal-close-to-zero-us-also-pessimistic/

Families reportedly told deal unlikely to happen as Netanyahu, Sinwar both hardened stances; US to delay presenting new proposal, does not want to reward Hamas after executions

3 Israelis killed in terror shooting at crossing between West Bank and Jordan

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/

Three Israeli men were killed in a terrorist shooting attack at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Sunday morning, authorities said.

The attack was carried out by a Jordanian truck driver who had arrived from Jordan. The crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is the West Bank’s sole crossing with Jordan.

BBC breaches its own editorial guidelines 1500 times during Israel-Hamas War

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-819124

The BBC has breached its editorial guidelines for news coverage more than 1,500 times since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, according to The Telegraph's Saturday report based on research led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson.

The research analyzed four months of the BBC's output across television, radio, online news, podcasts, and social media. Additionally, a team of around 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists contributed to the research and analyzed nine million words of BBC output using artificial intelligence (AI), 

Hamas document details tactics to up pressure on Israel, stall hostage talks

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-document-details-tactics-to-up-pressure-on-israel-stall-hostage-talks-report/

A newly revealed Hamas document indicates that the terror group’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel is to rehabilitate its military capabilities, and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population, German newspaper Bild reported Friday.

Largest Texas Newspaper Accuses Greg Abbott of 'Beyond Reckless' Behavior

 https://www.newsweek.com/houston-chronicle-governor-greg-abbott-purged-voter-rolls-texas-1950355

The Houston Chronicle's editorial board, in a Wednesday op-ed entitled, "Texas' voter roll purge is routine practice. So why is Greg Abbott crying voter fraud?" took direct aim at Abbott's August announcement that over 1.1 million people have been removed from Texas voter rolls since September 2021.

This purge, which Abbott framed as an effort to protect elections from illegal voting, includes individuals who have moved out of state, are deceased, or are not U.S. citizens.

How some of the biggest right-wing social media stars became unwitting mouthpieces of Russian propaganda

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/07/media/tenet-media-russia-rt-tim-pool-dave-rubin-lauren-chen/index.html 

The secret payments pull back the curtain on some of the most popular right-wing personalities, who were paid millions of dollars by the Kremlin, without their knowledge according to the Justice Department to promote conservative narratives that furthered Russian interests. And while the influencer, podcaster, and online content creator space is booming, the indictment shows how open the new media ecosystem is to infiltration, where independent creators operate with few guardrails and little transparency.

Man charged with plotting attack on N.Y. Jewish center on Oct. 7 anniversary

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/09/06/new-york-oct-7-attack-pakistani-canadian-arrested/

U.S. officials have charged a Canadian resident with plotting to travel to New York to try to carry out a mass shooting against Jewish people on the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, authorities announced Friday.

Vance Stands By Tucker Carlson Platforming Holocaust Revisionist

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/vance-stands-by-tucker-carlson-platforming-holocaust-revisionist?ref=home?ref=home

In a statement to The Jewish Insider, a Vance campaign official said that the Ohio Senator does not hold Carlson responsible for Cooper’s whitewashing of the Nazis’ genocide—despite the fact that Carlson called him possibly “the best and most honest popular historian” in the entire country.

Candace Owens criticized the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and his fans quickly clapped back

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-819056

It was far from the first time that Owens, who has millions of online followers, has gone after Jews and Jewish groups. She was fired from the media company of Ben Shapiro, who is an Orthodox Jew, earlier this year after criticizing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and since then has supported white nationalist Nick Fuentes and used her YouTube channel to defend Hitler and question historical facts about the Holocaust. A Trump fundraiser recently dropped her from its lineup following pushback from Jewish Republicans, but Owens remains a popular figure among the young online right.

Hostage killings and new demands cast doubt in White House that Hamas wants a deal

 https://www.axios.com/2024/09/05/gaza-israel-us-hostages-ceasefire-deal-prisoners

Biden and his top advisers were shocked after Hamas killed six hostages, among them U.S. citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and have started to rethink the way forward in the negotiations over the deal.

DOJ Bombshell Alleges MAGA Media Group Is Backed by Russian Money

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-bombshell-alleges-maga-media-group-is-backed-by-russian-money?ref=home?ref=home

A Tennessee-based media company with prominent MAGA personalities on its roster has been accused of receiving millions of dollars from two employees of Russian state-backed media company Russia Today (RT) in order to influence American viewers

In child's room filled with paintings: IDF reveals footage of tunnel where hostages executed

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r1nbrx8hc#autoplay

Military uncovers first video clip of terror tunnel in Rafah whose shaft discovered inside of child's room, from which forces recovered bodies of six hostages