This very obvious modern fake really shouldn't have got any media coverage, especially in Israeli media. They should know better. jpost.com/judaism/2500-y…
Nonsense writing that looks a bit like square-script Hebrew if you can't read Hebrew (2k years ago), with something resembling Tiberian-style pointing (1500-1000 years ago) and Stars of David (a modern Jewish symbol) everywhere... I mean, really.
I thought this sounded familiar. 18 months ago Turkish security did exactly the same sort of raid announcing the rescue of another "ancient" obvious fake.
A QAnon Telegram channel claiming to be run by JFK Jr has 176k subscribers despite the broken English and the memes. In one post, "JFK Jr" says that Princess Diana, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison are part of the Q team.
I'm consistently surprised by just how low-effort some of these QAnon channels are. But then I remind myself that by 2020 the actual Q posts were just as lazy and unconvincing
Research from Israel has NOT found any vaccine-resistant coronavirus variants in the population. They compared the prevalence of different variants in the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations and found no difference.
Some people catch the coronavirus despite being vaccinated or recovered (95% effective isn't 100%). The researchers checked to see if those people were disproportionately catching some vaccine-resistant variant. They weren't.
Israel's coronavirus cases are >90% B.1.1.7 "British" variant. Genetic sequencing has found dozens of SA variant cases too. The Brazilian P1 variant, the New York variant and the Nigerian variant have been detected in small numbers.
The Houthi regime in Yemen is expelling 13 Yemeni Jews as part of a deal where the regime will release an imprisoned Yemeni Jew, according to a report in Asharq Al-Awsat
The ancient Jewish community in Yemen has been reduced to a few dozen individuals, so these 13 are among the last Jews in Yemen.
The newspaper reports that the expelled Yemeni Jews are effectively being made refugees. Israel would accept them but they are unwilling to go there, and the UN is looking for a host country.
Biden press conference so far: he's doing fine. Rambling a bit, pivoting to key messages but sounding sensible and on top of his brief, and he's managed 15 minutes without insulting any of the journalists which makes a change from the last guy
Biden managing to avoid obvious traps, eg "are you worried the GOP's voter suppression will make it hard for Democrats to be elected?", he didn't say Yes but pivoted passionately to why the voter suppression is unfair instead
And on "do you expect to be running against Trump?" he said "I've no idea. I've no idea if there will still be a Republican party". He has a scatterbrained style and senior moments but he's sharp and on message.
1. The first messages about Jan 6 come just hours after Trump called for his supporters to come to DC that day. No Trump call, no mass protest, no Oath Keepers plot.
2. Now we'd think about this chatter (Emergency Broadcast System, Insurrection Act) as QAnon theories, but in November and December they were also a big part of what hardcore red hat MAGA was talking about. Trump told them they were going to win and they believed him.
I remain astonished that the FBI wasn't actively monitoring the Oath Keepers, 3%ers and Proud Boys. They were the obvious ringleaders here.
All three initial exit polls in Israel predict Gidon Saar's New Hope party collapsing to just 5-6 seats, and Benny Gantz's Blue and White doing rather better than expected. Updated exit poll in two hours is usually a little more accurate, though.
In all three initial exit polls, Netanyahu's bloc has a one-seat majority. But Israeli exit polls aren't very accurate, so that doesn't mean all that much yet.
At the moment, the thing that could most dramatically change the balance of power would be the Ra'am party crossing the threshold, winning 4 seats and shifting the blocs.