FRIDAY PDB – Body of Israeli abducted in Hamas' brutal rampage found near Gaza hospital. The body of one of the approximately 240 people kidnapped in Israel during the Oct. 7 Hamas rampage was recovered in a building near Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital, the Israeli military said Thursday.
Yehudit Weiss was abducted from the Be'eri kibbutz, Israel said on X, when Hamas launched the brutal attack that killed about 1,200 people and provoked Israel's reprisal seeking to dislodge the militant group from Gaza.
No cause of Weiss' death was given. She was 65 and her husband, Shmulik Weiss, was killed in the Hamas assault.
A second body of a 19-year-old Israeli female soldier taken by Hamas was also found.
MEANWHILE – Navy warship wasn't targeted by drone it shot down, Pentagon says. An airborne drone launched from Yemen and shot down by the Navy destroyer Thomas Hudner in the Red Sea Wednesday was not targeting the warship.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of today's other top defense stories from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.
Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:
ISRAEL'S WAR AGAINST HAMAS TERROR
Navigating the Pentagon's social media rules amid the Israel-Hamas war. Disinformation, misinformation, and deep fakes can be dangerous for active-duty service members who use social media.
POLITICS
House ethics panel finds ‘overwhelming evidence' of Santos lawbreaking. The congressman faces a 23-count federal indictment that alleges he stole the identities of campaign donors and then used their credit cards. After the report became public, Santos said he would not run for reelection in 2024.
Congress passes stopgap funding bill, hampering Pentagon initiatives. Congress on Wednesday passed a temporary spending bill needed to avoid a government shutdown, funding military construction through Jan. 19 and the rest of the Defense Department through Feb. 2.
NATIONAL SECURITY
New report: US must modernize nuclear posture for tri-polar world. To confront a world with not one but two major nuclear powers—neither of which is willing to enter arms talks—the U.S. must revive its atrophied nuclear weapons enterprise with all speed and build up its stock of conventional weapons to deter war, the chairs of a bipartisan strategic posture panel told the House Armed Services Committee.
The Indo-Pacific's new missile age demands Washington's attention. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's researcher writes that the proliferation of long-range missiles in the Indo-Pacific may seem like a strategic advantage for different nations, but collectively increases the danger level.
Veterans: All hands-on deck to remedy dire military recruiting situation. Only 9% of those 16 to 21 years old willing to serve.
75th Ranger combat camera releases video on Afghan withdrawal. The video shows US troops leaving Bagram Airfield little more than a month before Kabul fell.
CHINA THREAT
UNCLE JOE GOT THIS ONE RIGHT – Biden called Xi a ‘dictator.' See how China reacted. After their meeting at APEC, Joe Biden called China's leader Xi Jinping a “dictator.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson responded to Biden's comments by calling it “extremely erroneous” and an “irresponsible political maneuver, which China firmly opposes.”
Biden-Xi Summit Won't Save a Declining Relationship. Cooperation on warming and military ties are fine, but this is the same Chinese leader who said a decade ago: “The ‘laws of the jungle' of international competition have not changed.” China's plan for world domination hasn't changed.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Putin's brutal war on Ukraine vanishes from news coverage amid raging conflict in Gaza. The raging war in the Middle East has put the prolonged war in Eastern Europe largely on the back burner, in terms of media coverage, with Vladimir Putin's campaign of brutality against Ukraine receiving much less attention from the press than it did prior to the Israel-Hamas conflict breaking out.
A drone-maker's dilemma illustrates Ukraine's struggle to get key arms. Fortem could feed Kyiv's hunger for anti-drone defenses—if it could find funding for a second production line.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Romania inaugurates an F-16 pilot training center for NATO, Ukraine. NATO member Romania inaugurated on Monday an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries and other partners, including Ukraine.
General Atomics fires back at critics of MQ-9 drone after downing. The fate of the Reaper has once again entered public debate after senior U.S. defense officials confirmed Houthi militants had downed one of the drones over international waters off the coast of Yemen on Nov. 8.
US, Indonesia expand defense cooperation, starting with cyber and space. It's part of a larger effort across the region where cyber vulnerabilities are “a real point of concern.”
US MILITARY
Top Marine, released from hospital, prepares for heart procedure. Gen. Eric Smith is preparing for a medical procedure to repair a heart abnormality that doctors determined contributed to his medical episode.
Marine recruit who first held a rifle at boot camp ties shooting record. A week and a half after first picking up a rifle, now-Pfc. Francis “Frankie” Flannery scored a 249 out of 250 possible points on his rifle qualification.
Navy creates three new IT submarine ratings to promote specialization. The Navy is creating three separate ratings for information technology, or IT, personnel serving on submarines to specialize in communications, network security and electronic warfare.
US Navy upgrading torpedoes, leveraging cloud computing for submarines. The Navy is pushing new technology to its undersea fleet to make it safer, smarter and deadlier, while also nearing a major step in developing its next-generation attack submarine.
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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