Israel says it discovered a tunnel in Gaza that it claims was used by Hamas to carry out its Oct. 7 attack.
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— NewsNation (@NewsNation) December 18, 2023
Day: December 18, 2023
LIVE: @SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III holds a joint press conference with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel. https://t.co/XUuIxgIEGU
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) December 18, 2023
Pope Francis authorizes blessings for same-sex couples – Google Search https://t.co/NEHiYoDies pic.twitter.com/inndqCvqb7
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) December 18, 2023
At least one police officer has been killed and 14 other people have been injured during an operation to regain control of the Tacumbú penitentiary, Paraguay’s largest prison, following a violent riot that broke out in October, La Prensa Latina reports. During the riot, members of the Rotela Clan, an organization linked to drug trafficking in Paraguay, set the prison ablaze and held 22 police officers hostage for over 15 hours. Monday’s operation, which began before dawn and involved over 1,200 police officers as well as more than 1,000 military personnel, was ordered to regain control of the prison and transfer its inmates to at least eight other penitentiaries across the country. Armando Javier Rotela, the alleged leader of the Rotela clan, was reportedly captured during the operation. The head of the National Police’s anti-kidnapping department, Commissioner Nimio Cardozo, told EFE that at least 14 people – two soldiers and 12 police – have been injured.
The New York City Council is expected to approve a bill that would ban solitary confinement, despite continued opposition by Mayor Eric Adams and the union representing correction officers, Emma G. Fitzsimmons reports for the New York Times. Mayor Eric Adams has argued since he took office two years ago that isolating detainees is an important tool to help protect jail workers and detainees. However, a group of 11 Congress members wrote a letter last week supporting the bill and the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who is a sponsor of the bill, said that isolating detainees was cruel and that the bill still allowed for people to be separated when needed.
Benny Boscio, the president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, condemned the Council’s efforts and accused them of “protecting our most violent population instead of protecting us.” He said that there had been more than 6,500 assaults against correction officers over the last three years, including 51 sexual assaults against female officers. At a hearing in September 2022, Louis A. Molina, then the head of the Correction Department, said that 117 people were in restrictive housing at the time. The deaths of several people in solitary confinement at Rikers over the last decade prompted elected officials to keep pushing for the ban. If approved, the bill would New York the largest American city to ban solitary confinement in city jails in most cases, part of a national campaign to end a practice that critics say amounts to torture.
The FBI has arrested the founder of a Neo-Nazi online community that targeted underage populations across the country and the globe for abuse, Seamus Hughes reports for Court Watch. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force says the Bureau opened an investigation into Kalana Limkin in May 2023 who is accused of being an associate of the groups known as CVLT and “764” and the “founder of a splinter group, “Cultist.”
Limkin was arrested on Friday in Hawaii. A request for detention of Limkin filed by the prosecutors outlines the history of 764 stating, “That [764] group is a radical offshoot of a satanic anarchist group, The Order of Nine Angles (“O9A”), which espouses the belief that society must be destroyed from within. O9A encourages members to engage in criminal acts, including violence, sexual assault, murder, and terrorism, to accelerate and cause the demise of western society. The group functions together as a coordinated unit by using Discord and Telegram as vessels to desensitize vulnerable populations through sharing extreme gore and child sexual abuse material. During an interview, Limkin allegedly admitted to “being the creator of Cultist” and had numerous child exploitation images on his phone.