CW2 / Domestic violence - Moderate to High THREAT - up dated July 14, 2024
— Attempted assassination of Trump.
July 15 RNC convention in Milwaukee, WI
July 25 - Protest of Netanyahu’s appearance before congress.
August 19 - DNC convention in Chicago, IL
ALERT all week for protests/riots at the RNC convention in Milwaukee
***
After police officers assisting with security at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee responded to a reported fight roughly one mile from the main RNC venue, ultimately shooting and killing a suspect who drew a knife, additional security incidents more directly impacting the convention were reported that raised concerns about what, exactly, is going on at the margins of the convention’s secure perimeter.
On Tuesday evening, Fox News Channel’s Bill Melugin reported that authorities tasked with monitoring the secure perimeter around several blocks of the downtown area “stopped a suspicious man wearing a ski mask” a few blocks away from the venue containing the convention stage. The 21-year-old man was arrested and found to be carrying an “AK47 pistol, a full magazine, & a Scream mask in a large backpack.” The individual’s plans remain unknown as of now, but local authorities told Melugin that the arrestee “did not have a legal CCW permit.”
OBSERVATION - This is largely good news, Milwaukee police doing their job to keep the convention safe.
ADDITIONAL - Protests around the convention center continue to be largely peaceful. Still concerned for Thursday nite and possible efforts to disrupt Trump’s acceptance speech.
Terrorism - Heightened THREAT as of May 6, 2024
Transitioning the PA assassination attempt here as investigation has shifted and classified it as a potential domestic terror incident. NOTE - Signifiant components also fall under CW2.
Folks, IMHO, when they can’t keep their story straight, it creates a pungent aroma of a cover up.
In the last post, the reasoning given - reportedly by the local police force charged with security of the buildings from which Crooks fired from - stated it was too “hot” to place a team on the roof.
Yesterday, Secret Service director Kim Cheatle upended this reason claiming snipers couldn’t be on the roof because it was sloped and they might fall and hurt themselves).
Cheatle: “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
OMG, secret service personnel are supposed to be selected for a willingness to sacrifice their lives for their protectee. And this half-baked numbskull thinks an essentially flat roof is too sloped to place forces on it!!!!????!!!!.
Now, on Tuesday, the Secret Service had agreed to brief the House Oversight Committee.
Now, Homeland Security has stepped in, superseded all communications with the Oversight Committee and has refused to confirm a briefing will occur.
More secret service issues are popping up. The United States received intelligence from a human source in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to try to assassinate former President Donald Trump, CNN reported Tuesday, citing people briefed on the matter.
The U.S. Secret Service and the Trump campaign were made aware of the plot before Saturday’s rally, a CNN reporter posted on X, citing a U.S. national security official.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told the network that the agency recently “added protective resources and capabilities to the former President’s security detail.”
The fact that the Biden administration knew of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump WEEKS AGO makes its staggering failures on Saturday even more egregious.
Were there additional resources added. The answer is clearly NO, Trump’s security detail had for many months been requesting more assets - only to be rejected time and again.
Secondly, USSS Director Cheatle admits to replacing Trump’s permanent detail with ‘Temporary Agents’ For Butler rally. Makes the “no manpower” excuse pretty hollow.
I almost hate to do this, it hurts, but I has to be done.
- How was an individual designated by police as ‘suspicious’ allowed to wander around with an AR15, taking laser rangefinder measurements.
- More importantly, he got to a ‘known, high priority vulnerability’ location unchallenged.
- How / why was there a ladder located in a partially hidden alcove for that he used.
Pretty wild how he just happened to pick the one event with the one spot that Biden’s Secret Service deliberately kept unguarded.
FIrst, initial discussions were how a ‘math geek’ could have any chance shooting trump as he did - yielding a second gunman theory. Reality is he was a member of a gun club and spent part of Friday prior to the assassination attempt there shooting. The fact that several years prior he shot poorly and did’t make the school shooting team is secondary at this point. That is plenty of time to make up for poor shooting skills.
Second goes back to the absence of any social media footprint - for 20 yr old not to have a facebook, twitter, etc account is almost unheard of. Reports are that his phone has been cracked - nothing inside it to provide information on his actions/motives prior. No word yet on his laptop.
Third - I’ve mentioned this earlier - why in the world was he allowed to wander around this sensitive portion of the perimeter AND NOT BE CHALLENGED BY ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT?
Fourth - understated even by me, but that he had a remote controlled IED in his car and a remote detonator was found on his body. More bombs at his home. Where did he get the info on how to construct these devices?
This causes me to circle back and relook the conspiracy theory that Crooks received help - from US govt agents. This is in part because when you look at the entire picture, what you see better resembles a deliberate plan to make Trump vulnerable but to appear at first glance to be just a couple of innocent mistakes. With some ‘guidance’ from an insider, some of the above questions start to jell.
We know this can happen because the FBI did it with Gretchen Whitmer: It recruited and urged disturbed individuals to buy weapons and put together a plan to kidnap her. In that case, the FBI wanted a story it could use to slime right-wingers. So it created the story itself.
So who was the shooter talking to in the hours, days, and weeks ahead of the event? Who was he meeting with? Did anyone suggest or nudge or urge him to go to the Trump rally in Butler? Did anyone suggest or point out to him the building he eventually used? Was he told at any time not to worry about security?
This is enough to make it hard to sleep at night. Sadly, the scenario is very plausible, given the clear knowledge that the FBI lied about surveilling Trump, lied about the hunter laptop, lied about so many other things. Tied tightly into this is a corrupt CIA that coughed up 51 intelligence ‘experts’ to openly declare the biden laptop to be fake and a Russian hoax - which we now know to be completely opposite.
Was this a set-up to look like gross incompetence on the part of security which allowed a suspicious individual to wander around a high threat location for nearly 30 minutes carrying an AR15 without being stopped or challenged? If conspiracy, did it spread downward to local law enforcement too?
Now DHS has forbidden SS from following up with appearances before congress and for members to shut up. That reeks of a cover up folks - big time.
Before I forget, one more point. Timing of the assassination attempt was critical - prior to the RNC convention . Trump had not announced a running mate yet, so if he was killed, it would have likely thrown the convention into chaos as a new candidate would need to be selected, a floor fight that could have fractured the party and allowed biden to overcome the plethora of problems he is facing. If the hit was planned/supported by deep state assets, this component may or may not have been a factor. We may never know.
Economy- MODERATE Threat - as of June 26, 2024
Japan is on the verge of a fire sale of hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. debt that could crash Treasury markets already teetering on the edge.
The news comes from The Wall Street Journal, which reported that Japan’s state-owned Government Pension Investment Fund, which holds Social Security reserves of nearly every Japanese worker, is poised to sell down its $400 billion of U.S. dollar assets and direct the money to Japanese domestic bonds and equities to prop up Japan’s asset markets long enough to limp through the next crisis.
As for the dollar, if Japan is about to flip to mass seller, that knocks out the single biggest overseas holder of U.S. debt.
And what if there are not enough buyers for U.S. debt?
Easy: Prices crash and interest rates soar. We’d be back to crashing banks here in America, with Washington’s debt service driving toward $2 trillion per year—in interest alone.
https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=7102#google_vignette
OBSERVATION - Sales by Japan as well as China also weaken the dollar, making imports more expensive. With so much of our debt financed by asia, losing that funding is going to hurt and hurt hard.
Wuhan and other “new” Plandemics –
Fearmongering of a new version of wuhan.
POLITICAL FRONT –
July 15 RNC convention in Milwaukee, WI
August 19 DNC convention in Chicago, IL
***
President Trump’s hearing to disqualify Fani Willis has been rescheduled for December 5, 2024, causing the lawfare RICO case to be delayed until after the 2024 election.
The hearing was originally planned for October 4 but has now been shifted to December, pushing the RICO case beyond the upcoming election.
“The Georgia Appeals Court agreed to pause proceedings in the case in June while it reviews McAfee’s ruling, and the Dec. 5 argument date means the prosecution will remain on hold into the new year. State law requires the appeals court to hand down a ruling by March 14, 2025, as the case was docketed for its August term.” CBS News reported.
***
Secret Service problems were already present many months prior to last weeks assassination attempt.
Back in May, Congress requested a briefing with the Secret Service, after several incidents allegedly raised internal concerns over the quality of its trainings.
A petition within the Secret Service has reportedly been circulating because of the incidents and called for a congressional investigation into the agency, according to Comer.
One incident saw a Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris allegedly attack her superior and other agents. The unnamed agent also exhibited other “concerning” behavior, according to her colleagues.
Comer mentioned the incident in a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and asked for a briefing on how the Secret Service is responding to the allegations of “inadequate training.”
“This incident raised concerns within the agency about the hiring and screening process for this agent,” Comer wrote in his letter. “Specifically [concerns] whether previous incidents in her work history were overlooked during the hiring process as years of staff shortages had led the agency to lower once stricter standards as part of a diversity, equity and inclusion effort.”
Comer also flagged concerns from the petition related to a “double standard in disciplinary actions, and a vulnerability ‘to potential insider threats’ that could pose a risk to U.S. national security.”
The letter requests the briefing by June 13, and cites “potential vulnerabilities” that could keep the Secret Service from “fulfilling its mission to ensure the safety and security of its protectees,” including the president, vice president, and their families
OBSERVATION - Like the military, FBI, and multiple other alphabet agencies, the filth and corruption brought by DEI policies have infected another priority agency. However, the rapid fall of the Secret Service to the ranks of a clown cop car is unbelievable.
Biden / Harris Watch –
Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including proposals for legislation to establish term limits for the justices and an enforceable ethics code.
He is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders.
OBSERVATION - He’ll bloviate about this, but congress has essentially zero time to attempt to pass any such laws. This may be raw meat to some of his constituents, but not the public at large.
***
With the after shocks from the attempted assassination of Trump slowing down, efforts have resumed to try to get biden removed from the ticket. A conference call expected later this month to ‘formally’ nominate him, in order to meet filling deadlines in Ohio, may be thwarted and there is a renewed push for an open convention in August. Watch the action among/towards democrat ‘super delegates’ to see if such a shift is going to happen.
Illegal Immigration –
The New York Post has uncovered yet another “unannounced” White House program related to the Biden border crisis. Ever since Texas Governor Greg Abbott effectively shut down his state’s southern border, the cartels have been forced to move their human smuggling cargo further to the west. Much of the traffic has been showing up in California, particularly in the San Diego area. Despite Gavin Newsom’s claims that California was still a “welcoming” state for migrants, in reality, the San Diego area was simply becoming “overrun.” Since we clearly can’t have that happening to a blue state in an election year, Joe Biden rushed to the rescue. The White House has been operating weekly charter flights out of San Diego to take the migrants elsewhere. Their destination? Texas, of course. They are being flown in and released in the Rio Grande Valley.
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/07/16/now-biden-is-flying-migrants-back-to-texas-n3791860
OBSERVATION - TX has been successful at securing the border, now biden is beginning to back door the placement of illegals into the state.
China –
China and the Philippines have set up a military ‘hot line’ for future use to diffuse conflict.
Russia -
Logistics –
Observers are noting that the majority of tanks being shipped to the Ukraine war zone are T54/55 vintage. Russia’s supply of its T90 (their reportedly best tank) is quickly running out with the 100th confirmed destruction by Ukraine forces.
Economic Impact –
See Europe / NATO General below on another hit to the Russian economy.
Ukraine –
WEATHER FORECAST – Temperatures continue in the 90s with some 100s and fair.
24 HOUR ROUND UP –
Ukrainian defense forces have been withdrawn from Urozhayne of Donetsk region and Krynky of Kherson region. This is the left bank bridgehead Ukraine established last year and that Russian lost a lot of troops trying to retake.
Ukrainian military conducted an ATACMS cluster munition strike at S-300 SAM at occupied part of Donetsk region. Took out the radar and several launchers.
Russian ground offensive has narrowed down to the Ocheretyne axis with minimal action along the rest of the eastern front. Axis has the greatest concentration of reported Russian attacks.
Outlook —
Status quo prevails. Russia driving in the Ocheretyne axis indicates a broader change in strategic tactics. With the Kharkiv offensive failing, Russia has to redetermine who gets priority for replacement forces. That appears to be Ocheretyne where Russia has had some of the best success so far in this year’s offensive. But even at that Russian forces are increasingly becoming lighter - lacking armor and tanks to support the attacks.
Europe / NATO General –
Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia announced they will disconnect from the Soviet-era BRELL (Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) power grid on 08 February 2025, which connects them to the Russian and Belarusian power grids. The Baltic countries are still under contract with the European Union (EU) to be on the EU power grid by 2025.
OBSERVATION - Russia’s golden goose has been in the supply of energy to Europe and other parts of the world. Ukraine has seriously damaged Russia’s oil sector, bringing down at least 25% of Russia’s capabilities. Europe has also cut off virtually all natural gas supplies from Russia, switching to US and others. Now electrical power from Russia is being cut off. putin has relied on these income streams to support the war, and with them being cut down has seriously put a pinch in the war coffers.
ISRAEL –
July 25 - Netanyahu’s appearance before congress.
——— GENERAL ——————————-
Lest we forget - there are still hostages being held in Gaza.
***
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tells his American counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, that Israeli army operations in the Gaza Strip have “led to the conditions necessary” for a hostage deal with the Hamas terror group. In their overnight call, Gallant provided Austin with an assessment of the Israeli army’s ongoing operations in the Gaza Strip. “Gallant detailed the precise operation targeting Hamas military leader Muhammed Deif, referred to as the “Osama bin Laden of Gaza,” - his office says
——— GAZA FRONT ———————————-
The Israeli army: The search for Hamas smuggling tunnels across the border between Gaza and Egypt will take months
Bulk of the air /artillery strikes have been in the central Gaza area overnight.
——— LEBANON / HEZBOLLAH——————————-
Hezbollah leader Nasrallah warns they will target new Israeli towns if Israel continues to “target civilians” in Lebanon
Overnight, Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah sites in Yarine, Ayta ash-Shab and Aalma ash-Shab, the Israeli army says. Also overnight, a barrage of some 15 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Nahariya area. The Israeli army says some were shot down by the Iron Dome, while the rest struck open fields.
An additional 80 rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel overnight.
———WEST BANK——————————-
The Israeli arrested 15 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight.
——— FORECAST ————————-
Fighting will continue to surge and ebb in Gaza as hit has over the past month. The attention is now focusing more on the inevitable fight with Hezbollah. Israel keeps taking out key leaders and facilities and Hezbollah fires rockets in retaliation. Hezbollah fails to to realize that Israel wants them to fire rocket as it
1) identifies launching facilities and
2) identifies rocket storage areas an movements to restock supplies after an attack.
Thus when Israel finally decides to go, many of its initial target sets will be these rocket launcher positions - to take them out before they can fire as well as storage sites to prevent rearming.
Good analysis on the Trump assassination attempt.
Thanks, Godzilla
As warned, life is flowing full speed, so today is a mix of two days. There will be no post tomorrow and likely nothing on Sunday either. Unfortunately, if the new cycle is correct, big changes in the presidential campaign are afoot.
CW2 / Domestic violence - Moderate to High THREAT - up dated July 14, 2024
— Attempted assassination of Trump.
July 15 RNC convention in Milwaukee, WI
July 25 - Protest of Netanyahu’s appearance before congress.
August 19 - DNC convention in Chicago, IL
ALERT all week for protests/riots at the RNC convention in Milwaukee
***
Protests have been relatively subdued at the RNC convention. Apart from a large march on Day 1, nothing significant to report.
***
But 80% of voters - including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans - said they agreed with a statement that “the country is spiraling out of the control.” The poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,202 U.S. adults nationwide, including 992 registered voters.
Some 84% of voters in the poll said they were concerned that extremists will commit acts of violence after the election, an increase from the results of a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May that showed 74% of voters having that fear.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-BB1q67uH
Terrorism - Heightened THREAT as of May 6, 2024
Holding the PA assassination attempt here as investigation has shifted and classified it as a potential domestic terror incident. NOTE - Signifiant components also fall under CW2.
DHS and SS faced a closed congressional hearing on the assassination attempt. Reported highlights include -
—The shooter visited the rally site a few days in advance to scope it out —62 mins elapsed between the time the shooter was photographed as being suspicious and when he fired the shots —20 mins elapsed between the time he was spotted by snipers & when he fired the shots —FBI Director Wray said there’s no known foreign nexus but no established motive as of now.
- Crooks had two cell phones and used three encrypted accounts overseas to communicate. The FBI found Crooks’ second cell phone at his home with only 27 contacts, The Daily Mail reported.
Investigators reportedly found searches on Crooks’ laptop including, “Trump, Biden, when is DNC convention, and July 13 Trump rally.”
FBI says they still have found no evidence of a particular ideology.
Lets focus first on the shooter behavior. This indicates more planning that previously indicated. Wray’s reported statement raises more red flags - who was he communicating with via ‘secure’ coms? If they managed to break into his phone, as now claimed, and Crooks had an app like “Signal”, they would have access to the messages.
Not included in the above list, SS / LEOs were aware of Crooks suspicious presence for about 3 HOURS prior to the shooting.
More from his parents - According to Fox News. Thomas Crook’s parents called police to report their son was missing a few hours before he attempted to assassinate Trump. He was 20. Why would they report him missing for being gone a part of a day. Sounds like they are trying to fake an alibi. Did the parents know something was up?
Secret Service screwups - If i understand correctly, standard protocol is that if a suspicious character is reported or a potential lethal action is imminent, SS is NOT to allow their protectorate into public view/exposure. Besides the 3 hour ‘warning, the local officer that confronted the Trump rally shooter radioed in to a shared police channel that there was an armed gunman on the roof prior to former President Trump being shot. Yet Trump was not warned and taken off stage before the assassination attempt.
Further, it is reported that the Secret Service Special Agent In Charge (i.e. the on the ground commander) was aware of the threat, yet allowed President Trump to take the (and remain on ) stage.
***
A more disturbing news item floating around the interwebs is the report suggesting that the assassination attempt may have been planned and elements took steps to profit from it.
It was noted that a considerable short sale of Trump Truth Social occurred just before the assassination attempt. It is being reported that the firm that took the suspicious and enormous bet against President Trump’s Truth Social stock ($DJT) ONE DAY before the assassination attempt is Austin Private Wealth LLC, majority held by George Soros’ Vanguard and BlackRock. The Bush clan is also heavily invested Austin.
Coincidentally, BlackRock, the party that would have greatly profited from President Trump’s death, included the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, in a 2022 promotional video.
Alex Soros infamously shared an Atlantic Magazine cover image which featured a bullet hole in glass, followed by a picture of cash which added up to the number 47, a message some interpreted as a cryptic death threat against President Trump.
Shorts against the Truth Social stock more than doubled from July 1 -July 12, meaning, people or large organizations were predicting that by Monday the stock would plummet, something that undoubtedly would have occurred had President Trump died in Pennsylvania.
This could mean some had foreknowledge of the plot against President Trump’s life and tried to profit off the coming calamity.
Investment firm Austin Private Wealth LLC has denied claims that it placed a massive put option on Trump Media & Technology Group stock the day before the assassination attempt, asserting that the filing was a “clerical error” by the SEC.
OBSERVATION - This is in tinfoil hat territory - but the timing is suspect to say the very least.
At this stage, it is a pretty solid assumption that Crooks had help and encouragement from someone(s) else. The biggest question is whether or not some or all of that help came from the US govt / Secret Service. Looking into the chasm of that black hole should strike fear into us all.
POLITICAL FRONT –
July 15 RNC convention in Milwaukee, WI
August 19 DNC convention in Chicago, IL
***
Republican senators, including a member of the Senate’s leadership, accosted the director of the Secret Service in a suite at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, demanding that she resign or provide a full explanation for the security lapses that led to the near-miss assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump.
Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third-ranking Senate Republican, and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee aggressively confronted the agency’s director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. A staff member for one of the senators videotaped the confrontation and sent it to a reporter.
The video, which Ms. Blackburn also posted on X, shows Mr. Barrasso berating Ms. Cheatle over why Mr. Trump was allowed to go onstage for his Saturday evening rally in Butler, Pa., when authorities had already identified as suspicious a man who turned out to be the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“You put him within less than an inch of his life,” Mr. Barrasso said to Ms. Cheatle, almost yelling. “So resignation or full explanation.”
OBSERVATION - My question is just WHY is this witch attending the RNC? Just to meet with Trump?
Former President Donald Trump met with Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle on Tuesday, ABC News reported on Thursday citing a source, with the meeting coming amid intense scrutiny of the Secret Service’s handling of the rally at which Trump was shot.
The meeting took place at the Republican presidential candidate’s hotel in Milwaukee three days after the shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania which left Trump with a bleeding ear. It was not clear what was discussed.
Biden / Harris Watch –
Potentially BREAKING news - strong rumors that biden may be stepping down from the campaign this weekend as senior democrat leaders like 0bama, schumer, Jeffries, pelosi, etc all pile on.
***
No sooner did President Biden say in an interview released on Wednesday that he would re-evaluate whether to stay in the presidential race if a doctor told him directly that he had a medical condition that made that necessary than we learned that President Biden had Covid.
Following the announcement, video showed him very slowly going up the short steps into AF1, wearing no mask, nor were anyone around him wearing a mask either.
***
Rumors of loud arguments in the WH between senior staff for both biden and harris. Is a melt down in progress going towards a 25th Amendment crisis?
More rumors of a serious lack of love between the biden and harris camps, as unconfirmed reports that should biden step down, he will not be issuing an endorsement of harris, probably deferring to the DNC convention for their selection for president - creating an ever growing chance of an open convention and vicious floor fight.
Cyber attacks/warfare – HEIGHTENED ALERT as of April 20, 2024
Businesses including banks, airlines, telecommunications companies, TV and radio broadcasters, and supermarkets have been taken offline following a mass global outage.
Major US airlines have been grounded.
Issues reported in Australia, India, the United States and New Zealand.
The outage appears to be affecting Windows PCs globally
China –
RUMINT. According to reporter Jennifer Zhang, President of China Xi Jinping reportedly suffered a stroke. Zhang is a defected former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) State Council Researcher, reports that people close to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the State Council are saying Xi had a stroke during China’s Third Plenary Session.
To add to the speculation, the Third Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party Congress has been repeatedly delayed and is, so far, untelevised.
Earlier in 2021, Xi suffered from a cerebral aneurysm and was hospitalized, ANI reported citing foreign media reports.
“It is learnt that he preferred to be treated with traditional Chinese medicines rather than going for surgery, which softens the blood vessels and shrinks aneurysm,” it said.
OBSERVATION - Tight news control out of China makes it difficult to tell if this is valid or not. As such, still heavily RUMINT, but if fact, things have just become more interesting in 2024.
Xi has no clear successor, so should he die or become incapacitated, there is likely to be a succession crisis as reform and Maoist factions within the CCP vie for power. This in turn would affect the situation in the western Pacific.
Japan –
Japan and 18 Pacific Island Nations signed an agreement to oppose any “unilateral attempts change to the status quo by the threat or use of force or coercion anywhere in the world” in the 10th Pacific Island Leaders’ Meeting (PALM10) declaration. This declaration effectively sets the Pacific Island leaders against any Chinese military reunification with Taiwan and the neighboring Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. (FO)
Phillipines –
Philippine Navy announced it is exploring options for a joint resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal with a regional ally (U.S., Australia, or Japan) as an “exercise” under the Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity agreement.
OBSERVATION - China’s continuing aggressive blockade of the Second Thomas Shoes could trigger a more serious incident if Chinese Coast Guard challenges a regional ally vessel.
Russia -
Logistics –
Russia: UralTransMash defense contractor factory is on fire in Yekaterinburg. It is the sole enterprise that produces 2S-series self-propelled howitzers (SPG) in Russia.
Economic Impact –
Ukraine is cutting off Russian pipelines currently traversing the nation to Hungary.
Ukraine –
WEATHER FORECAST – Temperatures continue in the 90s with some 100s and fair.
24 HOUR ROUND UP –
Ukrainian air defense shot down 16 Shahed drones and 2 Kh-59/69 missiles overnight
At night, drones of Security Service of Ukraine hit the Russian coast guard base on Lake Donuzlav in Crimea
Outlook —
Action on the ground is in a state of status quo. Russia continues to throw troops and equipment against Ukraine defenses and gaining very, very little ground.
ISRAEL –
July 25 - Netanyahu’s appearance before congress.
Key overnight developments -
- Tel Aviv hit by a suspected Houthi drone, one dead
——— GENERAL ——————————-
Lest we forget - there are still hostages being held in Gaza.
***
In his acceptance speech last night, Trump directly threatened Hamas, demanding they release American hostages - or else.
The Israeli Knesset passed a resolution opposing the two state solution. 68 members of Knesset (including Benny Gantz and his party) voted in favor. Only 9 members of Knesset voted against. This is the first time in history that the Knesset passes such a resolution
——— GAZA FRONT ———————————-
The commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s naval forces in the Gaza City region, Anas Murad, was killed in a recent drone strike, the Israeli army says, In a separate drone strike, the Israeli army says it killed Ahmed al-Masri, an Islamic Jihad member who participated in the October 7 onslaught. The Israeli army says Al-Masri was also responsible for the firing of a large number of rockets from Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood at communities in southern Israel
***
Israeli forces have killed half of Hamas’ military leadership in Gaza and killed or arrested around 14,000 of its fighters since the start of the war over nine months ago, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.
Among Hamas’ losses are six brigade commanders, over 20 battalion commanders, and roughly 150 company commanders, according to the IDF.
——— LEBANON / HEZBOLLAH——————————-
Lebanese media report that a senior commander in al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Group, was killed in an Israeli airstrike this morning in the Western Beqaa District. He is named as Muhammed Jabara. The strike against Jabara takes place in the village of Ghazzeh, around 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the Israeli border
Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun and a rocket launcher in Rab al-Thalathine a short while ago, the Israeli army says
Israeli army chief presents Lebanon invasion plan to US CENTCOM Commander Kurilla, kann news reports; Israeli army shares maps of planned maneuvers, signals that Israel is serious about stepping up operations vs Hezbollah
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a fresh warning to Hezbollah says the Israeli military can “in an instant” begin an offensive in Lebanon. He says it will be “fast, surprising and sharp,” while adding that Israel is “approaching a decision-making crossroad.” “We are waging a limited war in the northern region. We are using a small part of the Israeli army’s power, but things can change in a second, from a main effort in the south to a main effort in the north, and it will be quick, surprising and very sharp, it can also happen as a result of [Hezbollah’s] action,” Gallant tells reservists of the Oded Brigade in northern Israel
———“ISLAMIC RESISTANCE” ———————————
A drone attack was carried out on Ben Yehuda Street on the corner of Shalom Aleichem near the US Consulate after loud explosions were heard in Tel Aviv early Friday morning. Yemen’s Houthis subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack.
Israeli army Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military estimates that the drone that struck Tel Aviv overnight was launched from Yemen. The drone made its way into Tel Aviv from the sea.
***
U.S. Defense Officials have now confirmed that American troops at Al-Asad Airbase in the Anbar Governorate of Western Iraq were targeted today by Iranian-backed forces for the first time since April; with a pair of one-way aerial attack drones approaching Al-Asad . They were downed by counter-UAS Systems at the base causing no casualties.
——— FORECAST ————————-
Drone attack on Tel Aviv carries more psychological effects than actual damage, Houthis with Hezbollah/Iran help managed to find a flight path and profile that prevented detection Initial reports that it made its approach from the sea suggests either a very long range drone, or one launched closer to Israel, possibly from Syria.
Norther Israeli cities are making preparations for the war with Hezbollah by building more bomb shelters, running drills, hardening hospitals etc. Now more than half way through July, the potential opening of an operational window in August, as suggested by many, is fast approaching and civil authorities are ramping up their preparations.