IDF blows up Hezbollah’s ‘strategic’ complex beneath south Lebanon’s Ali Taher Ridge

IDF blows up Hezbollah’s ‘strategic’ complex beneath south Lebanon’s Ali Taher Ridge

Emanuel Fabian

Jacob Magid

Using 1,100 tons of explosives, the Israeli military said on Thursday that it had demolished a “strategic” underground facility belonging to the Hezbollah terror group beneath a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon.

The Ali Taher Ridge is located within Israel’s southern Lebanon buffer zone, near Nabatieh. According to the Israel Defense Forces, the tunnel systems under Ali Taher served as the “nerve center” of the terror group’s Badr regional division — a unit tasked with the area of southern Lebanon that is north of the Litani River.

Last week, the military said it had completed capturing and clearing out the tunnel system of Hezbollah operatives, killing some of them while others fled.

Iran ostensibly warned the US that it would respond to any Israeli offensive against the Hezbollah facility beneath the hill, according to a report by Reuters last week, although that came after the IDF had already captured and cleared the site.

A military official said after the tunnels had been blown up that “the IDF is prepared for a variety of scenarios, including multi-arena scenarios.”

A massive blast was heard throughout the region as the IDF demolished the two tunnel routes under the hill with 1,100 tons of explosives. Footage showed a massive fireball erupting above the mountain. Seismic systems also detected the explosion as a 4.1-magnitude earthquake, the United States Geological Survey said.

The IDF described the facility as a “strategic infrastructure that was built over two decades,” an activity it said was financed and planned by Iran.

Some 50 Hezbollah operatives were believed to be holed up under Ali Taher when a new ceasefire took effect in June. The IDF asserted, contrary to the recent Reuters report, that no members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were in the tunnels.

Israel had initially given the Hezbollah operatives inside the tunnels the option to surrender to troops, a military official said. However, the members of the terror group refused and instead fought or tried to flee.

The military said it killed many of the Hezbollah operatives during the offensive to capture the underground site, including some trying to flee the tunnels and some trying to bring reinforcements.

A video published by the IDF showed two Hezbollah operatives being struck after opening fire from one of the tunnel shafts. Inside the tunnels, around a dozen bodies were found by the troops, according to the military.

Still, some of the Hezbollah operatives were assessed by the IDF to have fled the area.

Inside the two tunnels — spanning over two kilometers — troops found dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles and drones, along with firearms, anti-tank missiles, and hundreds of mines and other explosives, the military said.

The tunnel also featured “command centers, weapons rooms, generator rooms, living quarters, showers, and a kitchen,” which the IDF said enabled Hezbollah operatives “to conduct fighting and remain there for extended periods.”

In a separate joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the underground facility was destroyed following their directive, and the IDF has now “completed the organization of the security zone in southern Lebanon.”

“The terror infrastructure and headquarters under the ridge were intended to serve as a base for the conquest of the Galilee, and surveillance and fire over Metula and Kiryat Shmona,” Netanyahu and Katz said.

Netanyahu and Katz said that following the blast, the IDF is “preparing for defense in the area and to prevent the enemy from returning to the territory.”

The military said it would “reorganize” its deployment in the area following the destruction of the tunnels, but would still remain in control of the ridge with surveillance and firepower.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East conflict in March by launching rockets at Israel in support of its sponsor Iran, which had come under attack by a US-Israeli air campaign. Israel responded to the Hezbollah attacks with a heavy air campaign and ground invasion.

Fighting has persisted despite the ceasefire declared in Lebanon in April, but at a reduced rate. Israeli forces continue to operate inside a self-declared “security zone,” which runs around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep inside Lebanese territory along the border.

In June, Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement committing Lebanon to restoring sovereignty over its territory through the “verified disarmament of non-state armed groups,” which would in turn enable a progressive Israeli withdrawal. The State of Lebanon, along with Israel and the US, signed the agreement, but Hezbollah and its allies are opposed to it.

Israel pulled forces out of three pilot zones into which the Lebanese army entered, but has said it will not carry out any further withdrawals before Hezbollah is disarmed.

Israel and Lebanon have been holding negotiations to advance the framework deal since April, and an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Thursday that the next round of talks will take place next week in Rome.

The Digital ID Gatekeeper Is Coming To Windows

The Digital ID Gatekeeper Is Coming To Windows

PNW STAFF

For most of the personal computer's history, the relationship was simple: you owned the machine, opened a program, and expected it to obey. But Microsoft is preparing Windows for a very different digital future--one in which applications may first ask the operating system what kind of person is sitting behind the screen and whether that person has been verified.

Microsoft's new Windows Age APIs will allow participating apps to request the age range of a signed-in user. Windows can report that the user is under 10, 10-12, 13-15, 16-17, or 18 and older. It can also tell the app whether that age has been verified, remains unverified, or whether the user has opted out.

Microsoft describes this as a privacy-preserving system because applications receive an age bracket rather than a precise birthday. But behind that reassuring language sits a much larger change: Windows is being equipped to serve as an identity gatekeeper between the user and the software.

The computer will not simply open the door. It will be able to tell the app whether the user carries the right credentials to enter.

Protecting Children--or Classifying Everyone?

The immediate justification is child safety. Apps could use the signal to restrict mature media, social features, user-generated content, communications, in-app purchases, and virtual currencies. Parents understandably want children protected from pornography, predators, addictive platforms, and inappropriate commercial practices.

But a system cannot reliably identify children without also classifying adults. If an application must know who is under 18, every adult may eventually be expected to prove that he or she is over 18.

California is already pushing technology companies in this direction. Its Digital Age Assurance Act, scheduled to take effect in 2027, requires covered operating-system providers to offer an interface for recording a user's age or birth date and to transmit an age-range signal to qualifying applications.

What begins as a child-protection measure can therefore become an identity requirement for the entire population. Once the infrastructure exists, age may be only the first attribute it is used to verify.

Microsoft's current system requires the user to be signed into a Microsoft account, and its documentation says identity-provider age signals are presently retrieved only for Microsoft accounts. Apps must also request access to account information, and users can withhold consent.

But what happens when refusing consent means losing access?

An "opt-out" button provides little protection if applications begin denying communication features, purchases, media, or other services to anyone whose status remains unverified. People may retain the theoretical freedom to refuse while being progressively excluded for exercising it.

Soon We May All Be Asked To Prove We Are Human

Age verification is arriving as the internet faces an even greater identity crisis.

Artificial intelligence can already create convincing faces, voices, photographs, documents, and videos. Deepfakes can impersonate political leaders, pastors, family members, and corporate executives. Criminals can clone a loved one's voice, manufacture an emergency, and demand money before the victim realizes the call was artificial.

AI agents will deepen the problem. These systems are becoming capable of operating computers, opening accounts, sending messages, making purchases, and completing online tasks with decreasing human supervision. Hackers and organized criminals will use them to automate fraud, overwhelm security systems, infiltrate communities, and create armies of believable digital identities.

In that environment, "Are you old enough?" may soon be followed by an even more consequential question: "Are you actually human?"

Simple CAPTCHA tests will not be enough. Platforms may demand government identification, facial scans, device credentials, financial-account confirmation, or digital identity wallets. The more convincing artificial people become, the more difficult anonymous humans may find it to prove they are real without revealing exactly who they are.

Deepfakes and AI fraud could succeed where earlier digital ID campaigns struggled. People who would never voluntarily accept universal identity checks may embrace them when presented as the only way to distinguish humans from machines.

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Middle East on brink of World War III, Iranian lawmaker warns among escalating tensions

Middle East on brink of World War III, Iranian lawmaker warns among escalating tensions

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

Iranian lawmaker Kamran Ghazanfari said that the region is “practically on the brink of World War III.”

The Ghazanfari comments are interesting because they likely illustrate how some of Iran’s more extremist politicians and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) elites view the war. They see it as a regional and global conflict.

The Islamic Republic has worked with Russia and Chinaand has hopes that it can challenge the US-led world order. Iran has long portrayed its Islamic Revolution as a unique event that would transform the region and the world.

This goes back to the fact that Iranian Islamists believed they were presenting a new path during the Cold War that was different from those of the American and Soviet blocs. That changed in the 1990s when the Soviet Union declined.

Iran positions itself on side of a new world order

While Iran has at times considered reconciliation with the United States, it has also sought to position itself alongside countries that want a new world order. Weakening the US and pushing it out of the Middle East is a key goal of Tehran.

Iran International noted on September 9: “Ghazanfari, a Tehran representative in the parliament, said that we are ‘practically on the brink of World War III’ and considered the expansion of the war between Russia and Ukraine and the increase in tension between world powers as grounds for the formation of a widespread conflict.”

“Ghazanfari said that NATO’s support for Ukraine in its war with Russia - and Moscow’s tensions with Britain and Germany - have increased the possibility of the conflict spreading to other European countries. He also called the US-China dispute over Taiwan another area of widespread conflict in the world.”

In the interview, Ghazanfari also focused on Iran’s plan to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). “According to him, there is a possibility that this issue will be put on the parliament’s agenda again.”

In the past, he has critiqued the chances of a US deal. For instance, in June he criticized the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US. At the time, it seemed America and Iran might be able to reach an agreement. Ghazanfari said that any deal with the US would lack legitimacy and not be binding.

At the time, Iran International reported that “Iranian lawmaker Kamran Ghazanfari” said in a “warning to the negotiating team” that they should not cross any of the supreme leader’s red lines.

“Ghazanfari added that the United States had repeatedly threatened Iran and members of its negotiating team during the two-month talks, saying any deal reached under such conditions would have no validity under international law,” Iran International said.

Ghazanfari has also warned in the past about American and Israeli plans for a broader military operation. He claimed that the US might seize Iranian islands.”

“Evidence and signs show that the United States and Israel are planning a large-scale operation. They probably intend to seize some of our islands in the south and have brought many forces and equipment into the region,” he said.

Iran’s regime is currently continuing attacks in the region. Its recent attacks on Jordan and threats to attack tankers indicate that it wants to show that it can respond in kind to any US strikes and is telegraphing that it will not back down.

More Than 62,000 Arrested For Speech-Related Offenses In Britain, Report Finds

More Than 62,000 Arrested For Speech-Related Offenses In Britain, Report Finds

TYLER DURDEN

More than 62,000 people were arrested in Britain for communications offenses over a five-year period, according to a new civil liberties report warning that the country's increasingly broad speech restrictions are having a chilling effect on free expression.

Big Brother Watch found that 62,199 people were arrested between 2021 and 2025, amounting to roughly 34 arrests per day. At least 18,500 people were charged and 12,292 were convicted, according to the organization.

The findings were based on Freedom of Information requests to police forces across the United Kingdom. Big Brother Watch said the actual number of arrests could be higher because some forces did not provide complete data.

The report examined enforcement of communications laws that can cover threatening or grossly offensive messages and other online content.

Big Brother Watch argues that broadly written statutes have resulted in people being investigated or arrested over controversial social media posts, jokes and other forms of expression.

The group also found stark geographical differences in enforcement. Cumbria Constabulary recorded about 25.7 arrests per 10,000 residents over five years, compared with just 1.9 in neighboring Northumbria.

Big Brother Watch described the disparity as a "postcode lottery" that raises concerns about whether speech laws are being enforced consistently.

The report follows growing scrutiny of Britain's Online Safety Act, which imposes extensive content and child-safety requirements on internet platforms. Big Brother Watch says the law has encouraged platforms to restrict lawful material and require age verification for some online content.

Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, called for an independent review of Britain's speech laws and police practices.

"Thousands of people are being arrested for controversial speech, online jokes and non-violent protest," Carlo said. "Enough is enough."

The organization argues the figures demonstrate that Britain's approach to policing speech needs significant reform, particularly when arrests do not ultimately result in criminal charges.

Big Brother Watch is now calling on the government to conduct a national review of laws affecting freedom of expression and to reconsider police training on speech-related offenses.

Migrants Placed In Tiny British Village Will Out Number Locals By 10 To 1

Migrants Placed In Tiny British Village Will Out Number Locals By 10 To 1

Steve Watson

The official line is that 1,256 single adult males will be placed at the old MoD depot on the edge of the Oxfordshire hamlet. Yet the document villagers pulled out of the consultation pack talks about "accommodation for 3,510 service users."

That is not a rounding error. In a place of 350 people and 46 children, it is a demographic wrecking ball.

The Home Office calls the figure an "outdated estimate" and "categorically untrue." But the document has not been withdrawn.

The village has no pub, no shop, no pavement on the approach road and no street lighting worth the name. Men of fighting age would be free to come and go from a site that backs onto the children's playing field. That is the plan they are being told to accept as "fairness."

This is the same village that first exploded in July when the 1,250 figure landed with almost no consultation.

Children from the parish wrote to the Prime Minister asking him not to take the only home they had known. Seven-year-old Rex Perkin, whose family has lived there more than a century, worried he would no longer be able to walk to his sister's grave. On 4 July - American Independence Day - 96 percent of those who voted backed a referendum on leaving the United Kingdom. The second vote is now days away.

The new row began when residents working through the planning papers found an Unexploded Ordnance risk assessment for Bicester Site A. It states that "the proposed scheme" relates to "accommodation for 3,510 service users." The assessment is dated March this year. It is still online. It has not been amended.

The official planning application seeks a ten-year "temporary" change of use for "non-detained asylum accommodation," open 24 hours, for up to 1,256 single males aged 18 to 65. Consultation closes on 17 September. The village's symbolic independence referendum is two days earlier, on 15 September - Battle of Britain Day.

Parish council chairman Tim McNally put the contradiction in plain English.

"Although the proposal states 1,256 single males between the ages of 18 and 65, the service users focuses on 3,510," he said. "That is ten times the size of the village of Piddington. Now if that is an error, correct it. This is more than alarming. It is either deception at the greatest level or incompetence at the highest."

Resident campaigner Ian Darby told GB News the same suspicion is now general.

"Clearly we're concerned and it's slightly beggars belief that if there was some original thinking at sort of 3,500 people, that they'd still be daft enough to include an old report that is no longer relevant in this consultation," he said.

He added, "Some of us are a little bit more suspicious and worry that that is potentially their ultimate plan, which for this village, just to remind everybody, would be ten times the size of this village. It's a takeover. It's a complete destruction of a beautiful little village."

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