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The operation that resulted in the capture of Nicolas Maduro is now being described as a turning point in modern combat, with claims that an unfamiliar and extraordinarily powerful weapon was deployed during the mission.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt amplified those claims, urging the public to pay attention as she shared a disturbing eyewitness narrative on X. “Stop what you are doing and read this… ,” she wrote while circulating the account.

According to the testimony, Venezuelan troops were incapacitated almost instantly, with soldiers collapsing to the ground, “bleeding through the nose,” and throwing up blood. The account was attributed to a Venezuelan guard who said he personally witnessed the events.

The guard said the attack began with something unfamiliar and impossible for him to identify. “At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,” he said in the account posted on X.

He explained that what followed felt overwhelming and physically crushing. “It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly, I felt like my head was exploding from the inside.

“It was like a very intense sound wave.”

As a result, he said, the Venezuelan forces were rendered helpless and unable to mount any resistance.

According to the guard, the technological gap made fighting back impossible. “We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons,” he said. “I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon or whatever it was.”

He went on to claim that American forces eliminated hundreds of fighters on the ground without losing a single soldier during the engagement.

Describing the moments leading up to the assault, the guard said Venezuelan defenses suddenly went blind. “We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” he said. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.”

He said that shortly afterward, only “barely eight” helicopters arrived, unloading roughly 20 U.S. troops. Despite their small number, he said, their technological superiority proved decisive.

Those developments, he said, resulted in a massacre.

“We were hundreds, but we had no chance,” the guard said. “They were shooting with such precision and speed; it felt like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute.”

He repeated that the outcome was lopsided and devastating. “Those 20 men, without a single casualty, killed hundreds of us,” he said. “We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons. I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The White House did not respond to a New York Post request seeking clarification on whether Leavitt’s repost meant the administration had independently confirmed the account.

Venezuela’s Interior Ministry, meanwhile, asserted that roughly 100 members of the country’s security forces were killed during the operation.

Separately, a former U.S. intelligence source told the Post that the United States has possessed directed-energy weapons for years, including systems capable of causing effects such as “bleeding, inability to move or function, pain and burning.”

The guard said he decided to speak out as a warning to anyone considering confrontation with the United States. “they have no idea what they’re capable of. After what I saw, I never want to be on the other side of that again. They’re not to be messed with.”

He added that the incident is already reverberating far beyond the battlefield. “Everyone is already talking about this,” he said. “No one wants to go through what we went through. What happened here is going to change a lot of things — not just in Venezuela, but throughout the region.”

{Matzav.com}

Tom Homan: “The media is normalizing interference with ICE. It is a crime to impede ICE officers.”

Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Netanyahu, has been made a member of the powerful Central Committee of the ruling Likud party in an unelected appointment, according to Hebrew media reports. His name was listed among the members of Likud’s Ma’ale Yosef regional branch near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Although Central Committee elections […]

Sec. Noem: “If you look at what Gov. Walz has said, if you look at what Mayor Frey has said… They’ve inflamed the public. They’ve encouraged the kind of destruction and violence that we’ve seen… I would encourage them to grow up.”

The IDF confirms carrying out dozens of airstrikes across southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah weapons-storage shafts and terror infrastructure.

Rav Gershon Ribner, rosh kollel of Kollel Nesivos Hatorah and son-in-law of Rav Shneur Kotler, has succeeded in applying classical Talmudical analysis and methodology to understanding all areas of Yiddishkeit, bringing out its profundity and sense.

LISTEN:

The German government has sharply rejected accusations by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claiming that it has been sidelining patient autonomy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The statements made by the US Secretary of Health are completely unfounded, factually incorrect, and must be rejected,” German Health Minister Nina Warken said in a statement […]

Remarks were delivered overnight by Rav Reuven Elbaz, Rosh Yeshiva of Ohr HaChaim and a member of the Moetzet Chachmei Hatorah of Shas, as he addressed the condition of Klal Yisroel and the dramatic period through which we are currently passing.

In his words, Rav Elbaz expressed absolute confidence in the nearness of the geulah, speaking with sharp and unequivocal language. “My heart is certain,” the Rav said. “We are not talking about distant times. Not months. We are in moments, in hours, in days — and perhaps in the coming weeks — before the revelation of the true light.”

According to Rav Elbaz, the present reality is not another routine chapter in Jewish history, but a decisive historical turning point. “Our situation today touches the very apple of the Creator’s eye,” he said. “This cannot continue like this. It simply cannot be.”

Rav Elbaz stressed that this is not merely a general belief that “in the end it will be good,” but a complete transformation of reality itself. “Everything will be turned over,” he declared. “I tell you — everything will be turned for the good. Not only ‘this too is for the good,’ and not only ‘all that the Merciful One does is for the good.’ It’s not just that it will be good — it is the good itself.” He reiterated that these words are not abstract consolation, but a tangible reality about to be revealed. “This is exactly what must be. There will be only good. And with Hashem’s help, we will yet see this good revealed, when everything — literally everything — is transformed into white, pure, and refined.”

{Matzav.com}

A Shomrim member was assaulted and injured late Friday night while walking home with his wife and children in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The incident occurred at approximately 11:20 p.m. on Willoughby Avenue near Nostrand Avenue. According to police and YWN sources, a woman allegedly punched the man in the face, causing injuries to […]

Hessy Levinsons Taft, a Jewish woman whose infant photograph was held up by Nazi propagandists as the ideal “Aryan baby,” has died at her home in San Francisco. She was 91. The episode that followed Taft throughout her life began in 1934, when she was six months old. Her parents, Latvian Jewish opera singers living […]

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel is closely monitoring ongoing unrest in Iran, expressing support for Iranian citizens protesting against their government and condemning violence against civilians. Speaking at the opening of a weekly government meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said protests demanding freedom have spread across Iran and praised what he described […]

It is with great sadness that Matzav.comreports the petirah of Rav Yitzchak Shlomo Linder zt”l of the Yerushalayim–Masmidim community and one of the distinguished melamdim at the Boyan Talmud Torah in Yerushalayim. He was 80 years old.

The levayah took place on Motzaei Shabbos, departing from the Shamgar Funeral Home in Yerushalayim and proceeding to Har HaMenuchos for kevurah.

Rav Linder was born in Yerushalayim on the 13th of Shevat, 5706 (1946), to his father, Rav Yechiel Fishel Linder of the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood, and his mother, Mrs. Hadassah.

When he reached marriageable age, he married the daughter of Rav Moshe Pinchas Azriel Eichler, one of the respected figures of old Yerushalayim.

For many years, Rav Linder served as a melamed at the Boyaner Talmud Torah in Yerushalayim, where talmidim passed under his guidance and were shaped by his dedication and warmth.

He was among the most respected members of the Eidah Yerushalayim–Masmidim kehilla.

In later years, he resided for an extended period in the Nachalah u’Menuchah neighborhood of Beit Shemesh. In recent months, he moved to Beitar Illit to live close to his children.

He leaves behind twelve children and many grandchildren.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{Matzav.com}

The next U.S. census is four years away, but two lawsuits playing out this year could affect how it will be done and who will be counted. Allies of President Donald Trump are behind the federal lawsuits challenging various aspects of the once-a-decade count by the U.S. Census Bureau, which is used to determine congressional representation and how much federal […]

  Why This Raffle? R’ Mendy Rosenberg z”l was a devoted Hatzolah member who saved lives and helped thousands. After being diagnosed with ALS, he endured years of suffering — yet still completed the entire Shas, inspiring Klal Yisrael with his strength and faith. He left behind his wife and five children. Mendy’s Legacy Fund […]

Bris milah could be treated as a potential form of child abuse under proposed new guidance for prosecutors in Britain, following mounting concern from judges and coroners about deaths and severe injuries linked to the procedure.

In a draft framework prepared by Britian’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) addressing “honour-based abuse, forced marriages, and harmful practices,” circumcision is listed among practices that could amount to criminal conduct, The Guardian reports.

The language used in the draft, which was reviewed by the Guardian, has caused alarm within religious communities, with Jewish and Muslim leaders pushing back strongly and stressing the long-standing religious and cultural significance of circumcision.

According to the draft CPS guidance, male circumcision differs from female genital mutilation in that “there is not a specific criminal offence of carrying out male circumcision.”

The document goes on to caution: “However, this can be a painful and harmful practice, if carried out incorrectly or in inappropriate circumstances. It may be a form of child abuse or an offence against the person.”

Concerns over regulation intensified last month after a coroner warned that there are inadequate controls governing who is permitted to carry out circumcisions, following the death of a six-month-old boy, Mohamed Abdisamad, who died from a streptococcus infection in 2023.

That case mirrored earlier findings by another coroner relating to the death of Oliver Asante-Yeboah, who died in 2014 after developing sepsis following a circumcision carried out by a rabbi.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that since 2001, circumcision has been identified as a contributing factor in seven deaths of boys under the age of 18. In at least three cases, infants died after suffering catastrophic blood loss: Celian Noumbiwe in 2007, Goodluck Caubergs in 2010, and Angelo Ofori-Mintah in 2012.

Jonathan Arkush, a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and co-chair of Milah UK, an organization that advocates for the Jewish community’s right to perform religious circumcision, said the draft CPS wording gives a distorted picture.

“To suggest that circumcision is in itself a harmful practice, is deeply pejorative and misplaced,” he said. “Any procedure that is carried out inappropriately or without proper controls, including piercing a child’s ears, could be a harmful practice and a possible case of child abuse.”

He added: “We shall certainly be talking to the CPS. I would very much expect that final draft not to include it, as it is so obviously incorrect and/or misleading.”

Arkush, who practices as a barrister, acknowledged that a circumcision performed improperly could amount to abuse, but emphasized that the Jewish community operates under what he described as rigorous safeguards designed to prevent such outcomes.

“The incidence of complications in circumcision performed in the Jewish community is vanishingly rare,” he said. “Circumcision is a core part of our identity. I have never met any Jewish man who thinks they’ve been harmed by circumcision.”

The Muslim Council of Britain echoed the call for stronger oversight while rejecting the notion that circumcision itself should be treated as abusive.

“Male circumcision is a lawful practice in the UK with recognised medical, religious and cultural foundations, and it should not be characterised in itself as child abuse,” the council said.

“However, where procedures are carried out irresponsibly, without proper safeguards, and cause harm, they may rightly fall within the scope of criminal law. The lack of consistent regulation elsewhere creates unacceptable risks, and addressing those risks to protect young boys should be an urgent priority.”

{Matzav.com}

The body responsible for administering the Nobel Peace Prize dismissed speculation that Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado could pass along or share her prize with President Donald Trump.

The Norwegian Nobel Institute addressed the matter on Friday, responding to comments Machado made earlier in the week suggesting she might hand over the award to Trump.

“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” the institute said in a statement. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”

The clarification followed remarks Machado made during a Tuesday interview on Fox News’ “Hannity,” where the topic of the prize was raised.

“Did you at any point offer to give him the Nobel Peace Prize?” Sean Hannity asked. “Did that actually happen?”

Machado replied, “Well, it hasn’t happened yet.”

“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people — certainly want to give it to him and share it with him,” she added. “What he has done is historic. It’s a huge step towards a democratic transition.”

Earlier this month, on Jan. 3, Trump announced that the United States had carried out an operation resulting in the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing drug trafficking charges in New York.

Trump was later asked on Thursday’s episode of “Hannity” whether he would accept the Nobel Peace Prize if Machado attempted to bestow it upon him.

“I’ve heard that she wants to do that,” Trump said. “That would be a great honor.”

Machado reportedly fled Venezuela in secret last month and traveled to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, which she publicly dedicated to Trump.

“Let me be very clear. As soon as I learned that we had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I dedicated it to President Trump because I believed at that point that he deserved it,” Machado said during her appearance on “Hannity.” “And a lot of people, most people, said it was impossible to achieve what he has just done on Saturday, January 3rd.”

Trump has said he intends to meet with Machado in Washington next week.

In the past, however, Trump has questioned Machado’s standing inside Venezuela, saying she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to govern. He has instead backed Delcy Rodríguez, an acting president aligned with Maduro who previously served as his vice president.

{Matzav.com}

Kurdish fighters were evacuated from a contested neighborhood in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, officials said early Sunday, a move that could bring an end to several days of violent clashes with government forces. State-run news agency SANA reported buses transported the last of the fighters from the Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud to northeastern […]

This tzedakah is for one family living in deep and painful financial distress. A mother and father doing everything they can, yet buried under crushing debt with no way out. They have children to care for — children who rely on them for food, clothing, schooling, and stability — while the weight of unpaid bills, […]

Top New York officials spoke out after footage emerged of demonstrators chanting “we support Hamas” during a protest held in a heavily Jewish area of Queens, prompting condemnation from across the political spectrum.

The video shows protesters carrying Palestinian flags and chanting slogans expressing support for Hamas, a group officially designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.

The footage spread rapidly online, triggering immediate responses from city, state, and federal leaders who denounced both the message and the setting of the demonstration.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly rebuked the demonstrators, focusing on the antisemitic nature of the chants and the decision to march in that specific neighborhood.

“Hey so marching into a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and leading with a chant saying ‘we support Hamas’ is a disgusting and antisemitic thing to do,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X. “Pretty basic!”

Gov. Kathy Hochul also circulated the video and issued a sharp condemnation of the rhetoric heard at the protest.

“Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for the genocide of Jews,” Hochul wrote. “No matter your political beliefs, this type of rhetoric is disgusting, it’s dangerous, and it has no place in New York.”

Video from the event shows demonstrators chanting together while holding Palestinian flags, with several voices audibly expressing support for Hamas.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the controversy later in the day, stressing that public safety would be protected while also emphasizing constitutional protections for protest activity.

“As I said earlier today, chants in support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city,” Mamdani wrote. “We will continue to ensure New Yorkers’ safety entering and exiting houses of worship as well as the constitutional right to protest.”

Mamdani’s comments followed earlier scrutiny of his remarks in an October appearance on Fox News’ The Story, during which he declined to directly condemn Hamas and instead shifted the discussion toward cost-of-living issues facing New Yorkers.

Hamas is formally listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, and federal law bars providing material support to groups on that list.

New York Attorney General Letitia James also responded on social media with a brief but direct statement rejecting the chants.

“Hamas is a terrorist organization. We do not support terrorists. Period.”

The episode unfolded amid continued nationwide unrest connected to demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war, which intensified following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

{Matzav.com}

Sources familiar with developments inside Iran told Iran International that security forces have escalated their response to demonstrations, firing live ammunition at crowds in multiple regions as authorities enforce an almost complete shutdown of internet access. Preliminary information points to extraordinarily high casualties as the suppression effort expands nationwide.

Video material transmitted from Kahrizak depicts rows of bodies sealed in black bags. Individuals who filmed the scenes said dozens of corpses were visible there, with further remains reportedly stored inside a nearby industrial warehouse.

Separate recordings circulating earlier from Fardis, Karaj, and Alghadir Hospital showed bodies lying in open areas, suggesting that large-scale killings are occurring simultaneously in different parts of the country rather than in isolated pockets.

The communications blackout that began on January 8 has severely limited independent verification. Even so, the steady flow of consistent accounts reaching Iran International has reinforced assessments that lethal force is being used broadly to break up protests.

Based on figures cited by the outlet, even cautious calculations suggest that no fewer than 2,000 people have been killed over the last two days.

Those providing information described especially severe clashes in Fardis and sections of Tehran, while emphasizing that similar reports are coming in from numerous other locations, including the western provinces of Ilam and Kermanshah.

Although the blackout is nearly total, reporters said they continue to receive video clips and messages through limited pathways such as Starlink connections. Access to those channels is largely confined to wealthier districts and major cities, leaving large swaths of the country unseen. Despite that gap, journalists say there are reliable signs that demonstrations are persisting across Iran.

One video released overnight showed demonstrators in Tehran’s Poonak neighborhood torching a branch of Bank Melli.

Another clip captured crowds flooding the streets of Ahvaz, chanting “Long Live the Shah.”

Abroad, a protester scaled the balcony of the Iranian Embassy during a demonstration outside the mission, according to BBC. Police detained two individuals at the scene and continued to search for another suspect on trespassing allegations.

In Washington, US Senator Lindsey Graham, an ally of US President Donald Trump, issued a message of support to those protesting in Iran, pledging assistance and predicting an end to their suffering.

“TO THE IRANIAN PEOPLE: your long nightmare is soon coming to a close,” Graham wrote in a social media post. “Your bravery and determination to end your oppression has been noticed by @POTUS and all who love freedom.”

“When President Trump says Make Iran Great Again, it means the protestors in Iran must prevail over the ayatollah. That is the clearest signal yet that he, President Trump understands Iran will never be great with the ayatollah and his henchmen in charge.

“To all who are sacrificing in Iran, God bless. Help is on the way.”

Trump echoed that sentiment on Truth Social, writing, “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”

{Matzav.com}