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Hezbollah leader Nasrallah reportedly hospitalized after heart attack


Sputnik
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 17:57 UTC
Nasrallah
© Reuters/Khalil Hassan
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The news comes amid the conclusion of the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF) Operation Northern Shield, aimed at demolishing secret tunnels, allegedly dug by Hezbollah from Lebanon to Israel.

Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been hospitalised after suffering a heart attack, the newspaper Israel Hayom reported, citing Lebanese journalist Jerry Mahar.

According to Mahar's source, "a senior figure in the Hezbollah organisation was hospitalised" on Saturday in Beirut, while other sources confirmed that it was Nasrallah, adding that he "has been fighting cancer for years".

Hezbollah has not commented on the reports and has not provided information on its secretary-general or his condition. Nasrallah has not been seen in public since November, when he criticised a possible ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
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Dig

IDF destroys 6th Hezbollah tunnel, declares end of Operation Northern Shield

Judah Ari Gross
Times of Israel
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 17:40 UTC
idf tunnels
© Israel Defense Forces
Israeli troops search for attack tunnels dug into Israel from southern Lebanon that the Israeli military believes Hezbollah planned to use in future wars, in January 2019.
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday declared that its effort to find and destroy Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnels was coming to an end, following the discovery of another such underground passage over the weekend.

"With the discover of this terror tunnel, the effort to locate the passages dug by Hezbollah that crossed the border into Israeli territory has been completed. The neutralization of this passage will be completed in the coming days," the army said in a statement.

"According to our intelligence and our assessment of the situation there are no longer any cross-border attack tunnels from Lebanon into Israel," army spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

On December 4, the IDF launched Operation Northern Shield to find tunnels that it says the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group had dug into northern Israel from towns in southern Lebanon.

The military confirmed discovering at least six tunnels during the month-long operation.

"In addition, the IDF is monitoring and is in possession of a number of sites where Hezbollah is digging underground infrastructure that has yet to cross into Israeli territory," the army said.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

How noble: Retiring Israeli chief of staff tells NYT: "We struck thousands of targets without claiming responsibility or asking for credit"

Bret Stephens
New York Times
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 17:03 UTC
Gadi Eisenkot
© Gili Yaari/NurPhoto, via Getty Images
Gadi Eisenkot in 2014.
"We struck thousands of targets without claiming responsibility or asking for credit."

So says Gadi Eisenkot about the Jewish state's undeclared and unfinished military campaign against Iran and its proxies in Syria and Lebanon. For his final interview as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces before he retires next week, the general has decided to claim responsibility and take at least some of the credit.

Eisenkot's central intellectual contribution in fighting that campaign is the concept of "the campaign between wars" - the idea that continuous, kinetic efforts to degrade the enemy's capabilities both lengthens the time between wars and improves the chances of winning them when they come. He also believes that Israel needed to focus its efforts on its deadliest enemy, Iran, as opposed to secondary foes such as Hamas in Gaza.

"When you fight for many years against a weak enemy," he says, "it also weakens you."

This thinking is what led Eisenkot to become the first Israeli general to take Iran head on, in addition to fighting its proxies in Lebanon and elsewhere. And it's how he succeeded in humbling, at least for the now, Qassim Suleimani, the wily commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, which has spearheaded Tehran's ambitions to make itself a regional hegemon.
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Jet5

'China's nightmare': three B-2 stealth bombers deployed to Hawaii 'on watch' 24/7

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 16:40 UTC
B-2 Stealth Bomber
The US Air Force is putting China on notice as it announced Friday a new deployment of three B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to Hawaii for training in the Pacific. The nuclear-capable aircraft departed Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, and touched down at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, along with 200 support personnel airmen, as part of a U.S Strategic Command-led Bomber Task Force mission.

One defense analyst recently called the increase in B-2 bomber deployments to Hawaii "China's nightmare, and something Beijing should get use to."

"Deploying to Hawaii enables us to showcase to a large American and international audience that the B-2 is on watch 24 hours a day, seven days a week ready to protect our country and its allies," military spokesman Lt. Col. Joshua Dorr said in a statement. Though a Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs press release did not expressly mention China, Beijing has reacted aggressively to a number of routine US long-range flyovers in the Pacific and South China Sea regions over the past year, including "close call" incidents involving Chinese intercept attempts of US vessels passing through what China claims as its own territorial waters. "Its presence in the Hawaiian Islands stands as a testament to enhanced regional security," the US military statement continued.
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Newspaper

Trump 'couldn't care less if Putin conversation becomes public, slams 'most insulting article' by NYT

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 16:28 UTC
Donald Trump
President Trump brushed off a report by the Washington Post stating that he "has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details" of his discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin - telling Fox News host Jeanine Pirro in a phone interview that he would be willing to release the details of a private conversation in Helsinki last summer.

"I would. I don't care," Trump told Pirro, adding: "I'm not keeping anything under wraps. I couldn't care less."

"I mean, it's so ridiculous, these people making up," Trump said of the WaPo report.
The president referred to his roughly two-hour dialogue with Putin in Helsinki - at which only the leaders and their translators were present - as "a great conversation" that included discussions about "securing Israel and lots of other things."

"I had a conversation like every president does," Trump said Saturday. "You sit with the president of various countries. I do it with all countries." -Politico
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Info

Greek defense minister resigns over 'Macedonia name issue', PM Tsipras calls vote of confidence in govt


RT
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 16:03 UTC
Panos Kammenos
© Reuters / Alkis Konstantinidis
Greek Defense Minister and coalition partner Kammenos exits the Maximos Mansion following a meeting with Greek Tsipras in Athens, Greece, January 13, 2019.
Greece's defense minister has resigned in protest against a deal that would end a years-old dispute with Macedonia over its name. Panos Kammenos' exit could endanger the ruling coalition government ahead of national elections.

Kammenos submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday. Speaking after the meeting, he said that "The Macedonia name issue... doesn't allow me not to sacrifice the minister's chair."

Following the news, Tsipras announced that he will call a confidence vote in his government next week.

Comment: More on the Macedonia issue:

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Oil Well

Saudi energy minister claims oil market on 'right track' as OPEC's largest producer slashes exports


RT
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 15:53 UTC
Oil tanker anchored off the Fos-Lavera oil hub near Marseille, France
© Reuters / Jean-Paul Pelissier
Oil tanker anchored off the Fos-Lavera oil hub near Marseille, France.
Saudi Arabia's top energy official expects the oil market to stabilize shortly, and says it's already "on the right track" after a rout in the last quarter of 2018. The statement follows Riyadh's recent commitment to OPEC cuts.

"If we look beyond the noise of weekly data and speculators' herd-like behavior, I remain convinced that we're on the right track, and that the oil market will quickly return to balance," Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said at an oil conference in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, according to Reuters.

The world's top crude supplier says it will continue to work with members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and others to balance the oil market and do more to achieve this goal, if necessary.

"[Saudi Arabia] will work with all interested producers who want to bring stability to the market... OPEC plus and anybody else who would like to do it with us," the minister told a CNBC reporter.

Comment: Meanwhile: Why Russia isn't worried about lower oil prices

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Stock Down

'Storm clouds brewing': World Bank sees global economic growth slowing in 2019


RT
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 15:47 UTC
storm clouds over city
© Reuters / Aly Song
The growth of the global economy is expected to decelerate to 2.9 percent this year compared with three percent in 2018, the World Bank said in a report, citing elevated trade tensions and international trade moderation.

A slump in the global economy will continue in the coming year, with 2020 growth estimated at 2.8 percent, according to the report.

"At the beginning of 2018 the global economy was firing on all cylinders, but it lost speed during the year and the ride could get even bumpier in the year ahead," World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva said.

"As economic and financial headwinds intensify for emerging and developing countries, the world's progress in reducing extreme poverty could be jeopardized. To keep the momentum, countries need to invest in people, foster inclusive growth, and build resilient societies," she explained.
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Stock Down

Govt shutdown bites US economy: In 2 more weeks total cost will exceed that of building the wall

Yun Li
CNBC
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 21:56 UTC
Schumer Pelosi

Don't expect these two losers to fix anything, they will only make things worse...
If the government shutdown lasts another two weeks, the total cost to the U.S. economy would exceed the price of building the proposed border wall.

According to an estimate by S&P Global Ratings, it will only take another two weeks to cost the economy more than $6 billion, exceeding the $5.7 billion that President Donald Trump demanded to fund his proposed border wall. The U.S. economy will have lost $3.6 billion by Friday, according to S&P.

"We estimated that this shutdown could shave approximately $1.2 billion off real GDP in the quarter for each week that part of the government is closed. That may seem like pennies for the world's biggest economy, but it means a lot to those workers trying to cover their household costs without their paychecks," Beth Ann Bovino, S&P's chief U.S. economist, said in a note on Friday.

The firm came up with these figures by looking at costs related to the shutdown including lost productivity by furloughed workers and a decrease in sales for contractors to the government.

Comment: More on the government shutdown and its effects:

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Star of David

Hamas releases details of foiled Israeli intelligence operation In Gaza


SouthFront
Sat, 12 Jan 2019 15:09 UTC
israel equipment hamas

Israeli equipment captured by Hamas
On January 12, the Palestinian Hamas Movement revealed new details about the failed Israeli Intelligence operation inside the Gaza Strip last November, which led to a military escalation in the region.

A spokesman of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades [the military wing of Hamas], Abu Obaida, said during a press briefing that 15 members of the Israeli military's "Sayeret Matkal" elite special operations unit participated in the operation, which was aimed at planting advanced signal intelligence systems inside Gaza in order to spy on Hamas communications.

According to Abu Ubaida, the Israeli unit trained for the operation from January to October of 2018. Furthermore, the two specially-modified vehicles, which were used in the operation, were smuggled into Gaza through a humanitarian crossing.

Comment:

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