Israel Strikes Hamas Leaders in Qatar

Adam Kredo: Israel on Tuesday morning launched a surprise airstrike on Hamas leadership inside Qatar, targeting four of the terror group’s senior leaders, including chairman Khaled Meshaal. The operation came two days after President Donald Trump warned of severe “consequences” if Hamas rejected a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, and soon after Hamas did just that. The IDF confirmed that it conducted “a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization” in the early morning hours around Doha, where the terror group’s senior leaders have long lived in luxury. Israel aimed to eliminate Meshaal and his top aides, including Hamas finance chief Zaher Jabarin, politburo member Nizar Awadallah, and deputy chairman Khalil al-Hayya, who held talks in Doha with senior Iranian officials earlier this week. It is unclear at this time which officials were killed in the strike, which Qatar’s Interior Ministry said hit a “Hamas residential headquarters.” … As the terror group crafted its formal response to Trump’s peace plan, Israel unleashed its warplanes on Doha with intelligence provided by the country’s Shin Bet security agency (ISA). “The IDF and ISA will continue to operate with determination in order to defeat the Hamas terrorist organization responsible for the October 7th massacre,” the Israeli military said in a statement. It comes in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report on Israel’s new posture of hitting terror leaders directly rather than infrastructure, a shift that “is referred to among soldiers as FAFO, an acronym for f— around and find out” (Free Beacon). Israeli journalist Amit Segal: Do you really think Israel would strike in a country with an American base without first coordinating and getting the United States’ blessing? If so, I have some land on Mars to sell you (Segal).

Qatar Very Upset Over Israel Targeting Terrorist Leaders They’d Been Sheltering

The Qataris call it a “betrayal.” Perhaps they should reconsider giving aid and comfort and lavish lifestyles to Hamas leaders. Israel Hayom: [Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani] expressed anger, saying the Israeli strike could only be described as a betrayal. He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deceit and of conducting state terrorism, insisting that the talks had been held at Washington’s request. According to him, Israel deliberately sabotaged efforts to reach peace….  Trump’s public distancing from the strike against Hamas leadership in Qatar does not reflect the administration’s private stance, according to American officials attending the MEAD conference in Washington. Officials familiar with the administration’s position said Trump distanced himself because he had to, not out of genuine opposition. The US maintains strong security and economic ties with Qatar. Still, they stressed that both the president and his spokespeople justified the strategic goal of targeting Hamas leaders, while objecting only to the choice of location (Israel Hayom).

Russian Drones Enter Poland

RedState reports: Poland placed its air defenses at the highest stage of alert early Wednesday after up to 10 Russian attack drones entered Polish airspace. Rzeszów Airport in eastern Poland has been closed due to “unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security,” according to an official Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). Rzeszów Airport serves as the hub for military resupply efforts supporting Ukraine….  this report, if it pans out, marks a huge escalation in the war. Dropping the occasional drone in Romania is just bad manners. Dropping ten or so into a country that is ready and eager to have a go at the Russians could turn out to make someone’s days interesting. The most likely effect of this will be Poland and NATO extending an air defense zone over Western Ukraine. (RedState). Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC): Russia is attacking NATO ally Poland with Iranian shahed drones less than a week after President Trump hosted President Nawrocki at the White House. This is an act of war, and we are grateful to NATO allies for their swift response to war criminal Putin’s continued unprovoked aggression against free and productive nations. I urge President Trump to respond with mandatory sanctions that will bankrupt the Russian war machine and arm Ukraine with weapons capable of striking Russia. Putin is no longer content just losing in Ukraine while bombing mothers and babies, he is now directly testing our resolve in NATO territory. Putin stated that “Russia knows no borders.” Free and prosperous nations will teach Russia about borders (Wilson).

Russia Claim: Finland Preparing for Attack on Russia

The claim comes from former President Medvedev—Putin’s longtime ally. Kyiv Post: While Finland shores up its defenses near the Russian border, Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and prime minister, said that “Helsinki is pursuing a confrontational course of preparation for war with Russia, apparently preparing a springboard for an attack on us.” The statement was part of an opinion piece by Medvedev published in Russian media outlet TASS. In his column Medvedev also addresses his concerns about Finland having joined NATO, and NATO opening a new regional land forces comm

Senate Moves Forward With Rules Change to Deal With Backlog on Trump Nominees

The backlog that has come from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is extraordinary and unprecedented. Majority Leader Thune: Democrats have made President Donald Trump the first president on record to not have a single nominee confirmed via voice vote or unanimous consent, and they are forcing time-consuming votes on noncontroversial nominees who go on to be confirmed by large bipartisan margins. It’s Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids. It’s delay for delay’s sake…. Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this obstruction any longer…. Over the past month, I organized a group of Republican senators representing various points of view within the party to develop a solution. We have developed a plan, based on a previous proposal from Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Angus King (D-ME), that would allow the Senate to batch nominations together and clear the growing backlog (Breitbart). Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on the Hugh Hewitt Show Tuesday: So because Chuck Schumer has done what he’s decided to do, we’re now going to make a tradition to which Congress has always did. We’re going to make it now into a permanent rule change where we’re going to bring up these individuals in blocks of 5, 20, 30, 40 or even 50, and we’re going to have a regular two hour debate. It may end up being a 30 hour debate. We still got to do that. But for us to do that, we got to overrule the chair several times and it starts actually tonight (Hewitt).

Supreme Court to Take Up Case on Trump’s Tariffs

On an expedited, “fast-tracked” schedule. SCOTUS Blog: Setting the stage for a major ruling on presidential power, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide whether a 1977 federal law giving the president certain emergency powers allowed President Donald Trump to levy tariffs on nearly all goods imported into the United States through a series of executive orders…. The law at the center of the case is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law that allows the president to take action to “deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States” if he declares a national emergency “with respect to such threat.” (SCOTUS Blog). Wall Street Journal: It will be the first time the high court has decided on the legality of a major policy from President Trump’s second term. In the eight months since his inauguration, Trump’s far-reaching agenda has been challenged by opponents in numerous lawsuits. The justices have at times weighed in by allowing or blocking his actions on a temporary basis, but no case has been litigated to a conclusion so far (Wall Street Journal).

DHS Seizes 13,000 Pounds of Illegal Drugs, “Vaporizes” Another Drug Boat

It’s all part of what has been labelled “Operation Pacific Viper.” Bob Hoge at RedState: The Department of Homeland Security announced on social media Tuesday that the Coast Guard had made a drug boat go boom, and that they had seized 13,000 pounds of illegal drugs and apprehended seven alleged smugglers. The action comes as part of Operation Pacific Viper, which the Coast Guard described on their website in late August: “…Operation Pacific Viper [is] a historic partnership between the Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy that is surging forces to the Eastern Pacific to cut off drugs and human smuggling before they ever reach American shores. As part of this operation, the Coast Guard conducted 19 interdictions in international waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. They are defending the Homeland with overwhelming force.” It’s the second purported drug boat the administration has made disappear in recent weeks. As we’ve reported, the U.S. military took out a Tren de Aragua smuggling craft off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month and neutralized 11 suspected Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists. It’s all part of President Trump’s increasingly aggressive posture in the war on drugs (RedState).

Poll: Gen Z Sharply Divided Along Partisan Lines on Importance of Marriage and Children

The poll comes from NBC News, with the importance of marriage for a successful life among young, female, Harris supporters not even making the top 10. Marriage was the 11^th most important thing and children the 12^th—or second to last. Number one for Gen Z women was “Having a job or career you find fulfilling” and number two was “Having enough money to do the things you want to do.” Conversely, quoting NBC News:  Gen Z men who voted for Trump rate having children as the most important thing in their personal definition of success….  Young, female Harris voters also ranked emotional stability as the third-most important thing in their personal definitions of success, something that young men who voted for Trump ranked second to last. Men and women who voted for Harris are both more likely to include a fulfilling job and using their talents and resources to help others in their definitions of success. Men and women who voted for Trump are more likely to list financial independence, having children and being spiritually grounded on their lists of what defines success (NBC). Charlie Kirk: This is a pattern that I’ve seen time and time on these college campuses where young men are ordering their life correctly. They want to first and foremost have children get married and then have a nice job or to be able to travel. If you look deeper into this data, it’s completely consistent with other data we’ve seen the last couple of years. Young women, they don’t value having children, and this is one of the reasons why we are seeing a fertility collapse in the West (Kirk).

New Jersey Families Encourage Kids to Put Down Phones and Play

It’s called “The Balance Project,” founded by mother Holly Moscatiello. Time describes it: a parent-run nonprofit working to rebuild communities to encourage childhood independence and get kids off screens. “We want to make it just as easy to experience life in our community as it is to go on your phone,” Moscatiello says (Time). Jonathan Haidt: Here’s a great insight on the collective action trap, and how to escape from it, from one of the NJ moms: “People act like the people they surround themselves with.” So surround your family with other free-range families: …. As they waited for Moscatiello to begin the meeting, they snacked on cut fruit and chocolate-chip cookies and compared notes on which of their children had gone to play with the others, and how far they’d biked on their own. Most of them have kids under 10; almost all have so far refused to give their children their own devices” (Haidt).

Highschool Football Coach Loses Position After Being Caught on Sideline Holding a Bible, Praying With Players

He’s a volunteer coach who was otherwise “outstanding” but was exposed for “leading prayer, sharing Scripture.”  Trey Campbell is—or was—a volunteer assistant coach at Northwest High in Clarksville, Tennessee. Clarksville Now: Trey Campbell was asked to leave at halftime of the Vikings game against Davidson Academy by Northwest principal Brandi Blackley because he was holding a Bible and having players gather around him to pray. “I stood by my faith because that’s what I told my boys they needed to do,” said Campbell. “I told them I love them, but this was just the beginning of their journey with Christ, and that this is what it looks like when you are doing right by the Lord: The enemy does whatever he can to draw you from the Lord” (Clarksville). Daily Wire: According to the school district, “multiple witnesses observed and video footage corroborated Campbell spending significant time throughout the game on the sidelines with players and other students, quoting scripture, holding a Bible up to spectators, and leading prayers” (Daily Wire).