TV News LIES

Arrests. Classified documents. And suspected leaks that may have harmed efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in order, critics say, to give Benjamin Netanyahu public cover for failing to agree to a cease-fire deal. The Israeli prime minister was engulfed in scandal Monday over a case involving one of his aides that has sent shockwaves across the country.

The firestorm — brought into public view when an Israeli court loosened a gag order Sunday night — has enraged Netanyahu's political opponents and hostage families. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and distanced himself from the case, but critics have alleged that the Israeli leader put hostages' lives and national security at risk to buttress his hardline position in stalled cease-fire talks by leaking Gaza documents to friendly media outlets.

In a ruling on Sunday, the Rishon Le-Zion Magistrates’ Court said an investigation had been launched after suspicions arose within the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency, or the Shin Bet, that "classified and sensitive intelligence" had been illegally taken from IDF systems.

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• Ukrainian forces are restraining one of Russia’s most powerful offensives since the start of Moscow’s 2022 invasion, the top commander of Kyiv’s forces has said. Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s military commander, said: “The armed forces of Ukraine are holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives from launching a full-scale invasion.” Moscow said on Saturday it had taken two more settlements along the Donbas frontline in eastern Ukraine.

• Syrski added: “The enemy does not stop assault actions in several directions, using air superiority and long-range firepower, and also has a significant advantage in artillery shells.” Syrskyi said he told the chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, Gen Charles Brown, of the Ukrainian military’s “urgent needs” and that Brown assured him of continued US support. Washington said on Friday it would provide an additional $425m in military aid to Ukraine.

• A Russian air attack on Kyiv damaged buildings, roads and several power lines, the capital’s military administration said early on Sunday, after the military said air defences were trying to repel a drone attack. The attack came in waves and approached the city from different directions, said Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration. It was Russia’s second drone attack on Kyiv in as many nights. According to preliminary information, all of the attack drones were destroyed, Popko said. Falling debris damaged an entrance and windows of at least five buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi and Holosiivskyi districts, including a hostel and windows in an office building.

Over 58,600 children in northern Gaza received the final dose of the polio vaccine on Saturday, the United Nations said, as health workers race to vaccinate thousands more before the campaign wraps up on Monday.

The operation to deliver a second dose — which is necessary to effectively stop the transmission of polio — started in mid-October. It was meant to last a couple of weeks. But on Oct. 23, the vaccination campaign was postponed in northern Gaza due to safety concerns over Israeli airstrikes and mass evacuation orders.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged its allies to stop “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield, and the country’s army chief warned that his troops are facing “one of the most powerful offensives” by Moscow since the all-out war started more than two years ago.

Zelenskyy raised the prospect of a preemptive Ukrainian strike on camps where the North Korean troops are being trained and said Kyiv knows their location. But he said Ukraine can’t do it without permission from allies to use Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia.

“But instead … America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean military to start attacking Ukrainians as well,” Zelenskyy said in a post late Friday on the Telegram messaging app.

The Israeli military abducted who it said was a senior Hezbollah official in an unprecedented operation on Saturday morning during which Israeli commandos landed on the shores of Batroun, northern Lebanon, captured the alleged official and escaped via speedboat.

In a statement, an Israeli military official said its forces captured a “senior operative of Hezbollah” and transferred him to its territory to be investigated by military intelligence. The media outlet Axios cited Israeli sources as saying the captured man – Imad Amhaz – was responsible for Hezbollah’s naval operations.

Lebanon’s caretaker minister of transport, Ali Hamie, said that Amhaz was a civilian boat captain, while Hezbollah did not comment on allegations that he belonged to the organisation. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said Lebanon would be submitting a complaint to the UN security council, and that he had asked Lebanon’s military and the UN’s peacekeeping mission to investigate the incident.

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U.S. is reaching out to China to leverage its relationships with Moscow and Pyongyang to "curb" the entry of North Korean forces.

The U.S. had a "robust conversation" with China this week about the North Korean troops' dispatch to Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after a joint news conference with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their South Korean counterparts on Thursday.

"I think they know well the concerns that we have and the expectations that, both in word and deed, they'll use the influence that they have to work to curb these activities," he said.

What North Korea may receive from Russia in return for the troops "should be a real concern to China," Blinken added.

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