The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they unfold.
Candace Owens barred from New Zealand after Australia ban for denying WWII Nazi experiments on Jews WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The US conservative political commentor Candace Owens was refused a visa to enter New Zealand for a speaking engagement because she had been banned from another country, immigration officials say. News of the ruling came weeks after neighboring Australia also rejected her visa request, citing remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II. Owens is scheduled to speak at a series of events in several Australian cities and in Auckland, New Zealand, in February and March next year. Tickets remain on sale and there is no acknowledgement on the promoter’s website that she has been refused entry to both countries. The commentator, who has more than 3 million followers on YouTube, is accused by her detractors of promoting conspiracy theories and antisemitism and has ignited firestorms with her remarks opposing Black Lives Matter, feminism, vaccines and immigration. In March, Owens said she had parted ways with the Daily Wire, on which she had hosted an online talk show since 2021, after clashes with its founders over her remarks about Jews and her opposition to US military support for Israel. She was widely criticized for comments in a YouTube video in July that minimized the Holocaust. Owens had promised Australian and New Zealand audiences a discussion of free speech and her Christian faith when she announced the speaking tour in August. But Australian officials banned her from the country in October, with Immigration Minister Tony Burke telling reporters Owens “has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” citing her remarks about the Holocaust and about Muslims. “Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else,” Burke said. Australian Jewish groups had urged officials to bar her from the country. New Zealand officials did not refer to Owens’ political views in a statement on Thursday.
Mexico president says border to remain open after Trump claimed she agreed to close it US President-elect Donald Trump says Mexico’s leader had agreed to “stop” migration during a conversation between the pair, “effectively closing” the border between their countries. Claudia Sheinbaum “has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border,” Trump posts on his Truth Social platform. Sheinbaum, who posted earlier on X about the call, said the pair had discussed Mexico’s migration “strategy” but made no reference to closing the border. She worked quickly to respond to Trump’s claim, saying the country did not plan to close its border. “Mexico’s position is not to close borders, but to build bridges between governments and communities,” the Mexican president writes on X.
Biden urged PM to help secure hostage deal in call ahead of Lebanon ceasefire announcement US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their call yesterday ahead of the public announcement of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire that now was the time to focus on securing a hostage deal, Axios reports. Biden said as much in his speech announcing the Lebanon deal shortly after the call. “We have an opportunity now. Let’s get the hostages,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to US officials who spoke to Axios and who said the prime minister responded positively and said he wanted to try. “What the president refuses to say is ‘The hostages should stay in tunnels or in some other horrible condition that they’re in for three more months because the United States has a transition period,” US special envoy Amos Hochstein told Jewish American community leaders during a briefing earlier today.
Syrian rebels in the last opposition enclave in northern Syria have launched a wide-scale military operation against the Syrian army and seized territory in the first such advance in years, army and rebel sources say. The rebel offensive has overrun at least 10 areas under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northwestern Aleppo province, says a source in the operations room run by a coalition of insurgent groups led by the militant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The land incursion is the first such territorial advance since March 2020 when Russia, which backs Assad, and Turkey, which supports the rebels, agreed to a ceasefire that led to military action halting in Syria’s last major rebel stronghold in the country’s northwest. Rebels advanced almost 10 km (6 miles) from the outskirts of Aleppo city and a few kilometres away from Nubl and Zahra, two Shi’ite towns where Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah has a strong militia presence, an army source says. They have attacked Al-Nayrab airport east of Aleppo, where pro-Iranian militias have outposts. Rebels say the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air force on areas in southern Idlib, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army, which was building up troops near front lines with rebels. The army pounded areas near rebel-held Idlib city and the cities of Ariha and Sarmada along with other areas in southern Idlib province, according to an army source.
Source familiar with Hezbollah ops says up to 4,000 fighters may have been killed over past year BEIRUT — With the bodies of its fighters still strewn on the battlefield, Hezbollah must bury its dead and provide succor to its supporters who bore the brunt of Israel’s offensive, as the first steps on a long and costly road to recovery, four senior officials say. Hezbollah believes the number of its fighters killed during 14 months of hostilities could reach several thousand, with the vast majority killed since Israel went on the offensive in September, three sources familiar with its operations say, citing previously unreported internal estimates. One source says the Iran-backed terror group may have lost up to 4,000 people — well over 10 times the number killed in its month-long 2006 war with Israel. So far, Lebanese authorities have said some 3,800 people were killed in the current hostilities, without distinguishing fighters from civilians. The IDF has estimated that Israeli forces killed some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives.
Defense Minister Israel Katz defends his move to not allow schools to reopen in northern border towns tomorrow, despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. “The decision of the defense establishment to not remove the restrictions and not return the Galilee and northern communities to normalcy tomorrow is a step of necessary caution and a clear message regarding Israel’s determination to enforce the agreement,” Katz says in a statement issued by his office. “If Hezbollah’s attempts to violate the agreement continue and the Lebanese government does not fulfill its obligations, Israel is prepared to respond strongly. We will not give up and we will not compromise on the safety of the residents of the north,” Katz adds. According to Army Radio, the chiefs of the IDF Northern Command and Home Front Command, both recommended to Katz to lift the restrictions in northern Israel. Katz ruled against it, and the Home Front Command did not change the current guidelines, under which schools are closed in the Golan Heights and northern frontier communities.