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Joseph Grinkorn: The Trump Bull Market is Here - Markets Set to Hit New Highs by 2025 12-11-2024 12:02 AM CET | Industry, Real Estate & Construction Press release from: ABNewswire According to Morris Group CEO Joseph Grinkorn, Trump's return and aggressive economic policies are already shaping a strong future for Wall Street, with significant growth expected. December 10, 2024 - In an insightful forecast, Joseph Grinkorn, CEO of Morris Group, asserts that the financial markets are primed for unprecedented growth following Donald Trump's return as the 47th President of the United States. Grinkorn believes that implementing Trump's aggressive economic policies is already setting the stage for a historic bull market, with expectations for Wall Street to reach all-new highs by 2025. Image: https://www.abnewswire.com/uploads/903f86ceceb13b6f25261dbea50ae736.JPG "Trump's approach is unlocking new market highs by prioritizing key economic reforms," Grinkorn states. He points to Trump's focused agenda, which includes energy independence, trade reform, and tackling inflation, as crucial drivers for economic resurgence and financial resilience. Energy Independence: Lowering Costs and Boosting Nuclear Power Grinkorn highlights Trump's renewed commitment to energy policies to reduce costs and increase domestic production through nuclear power development, eliminating the nation's reliance on foreign oil. This strategic emphasis advocates for lower energy expenses foster industrial growth and enhances consumer spending. Trade and Tariffs: Protecting U.S. Jobs and Reducing Debt The Trump administration's stance on tariffs is designed to safeguard American jobs and contribute to national debt reduction. Grinkorn explains, "Trump's tariffs protect American jobs and reduce national debt, fostering a more robust economy and increased stability." By reducing dependencies on imports, particularly in manufacturing sectors, Trump's policies align with Grinkorn's vision of long-term economic growth and job creation. Tackling Inflation: Lowering Prices to Boost Consumer Confidence Addressing inflation has also been a priority for Trump, with initiatives to lower consumer prices. Grinkorn emphasizes how Trump's efforts to "End inflation and make America affordable again" revitalize consumer purchasing power, particularly concerning essentials like food and energy. Immigration and National Security: Enhancing Public Safety Trump's proposals on immigration, which include the completion of the border wall and stricter enforcement measures, play a significant role in his broader economic agenda. Grinkorn notes that these policies aim to enhance public safety and indirectly foster economic growth by bolstering investor confidence through improved national stability. As the market landscape shifts, Grinkorn remains optimistic about the future. "With Trump's policies taking root, the U.S. economy is experiencing unparalleled growth. Investors should stay informed and be prepared for these exciting changes ahead," he added. For more information, please visit www.Morris-Group.co [ http://www.morris-group.co/ ] About Morris Group Founded by Joseph Grinkorn in 2007, Morris Group specializes in high-return real estate investments, commercial and residential financing, and strategic equity placements in technology and alternative assets. By leveraging comprehensive market insights, Morris Group has established a reputation as a trusted leader in the investment sector. Media Contact Company Name: Morris Group Contact Person: Joseph Grinkorn Email:Send Email [ https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=joseph-grinkorn-the-trump-bull-market-is-here-markets-set-to-hit-new-highs-by-2025 ] Phone: (646) 673-8404 Country: United States Website: http://www.Morris-Group.co This release was published on openPR.
FORT COLLINS, Colorado — Lilly Downs rolled out of bed in her new apartment and began setting up her morning’s IV fluids, which flow from a tube in her chest into her bloodstream to keep the 20-year-old hydrated. The Denver Post has chronicled Colorado resident Lilly Downs’ experience with long COVID for three years. 2021: “She is such a puzzle”: Colorado teen’s months-long ordeal spotlights mysteries of long COVID 2022: A Colorado teen’s long COVID isn’t just persisting — after 2 years, it’s getting worse Next, she crushed and dissolved pills so they could run through a separate tube into her intestines, which absorb the medicine better than her stomach. The steps Lilly took that October morning are necessary because her stomach stopped working properly following her first bout with COVID-19 four years ago. But her routine also served another purpose: It was content she filmed for a video that she later posted on TikTok , where she has amassed nearly 470,000 followers. Lilly added Tylenol to her mix of medicine that morning, she explained in the video, because her mom was going to be giving her an intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG, infusion, which doctors have found to be an effective treatment for patients who have long COVID. “I always have to pre-medicate with Benadryl and Tylenol so that I don’t have a reaction to the infusion,” Lilly said during the minute-long clip. For Lilly, TikTok has become a kind of a job — and definitely a distraction — while living with long COVID, the name given to the physical and cognitive symptoms that can persist for months and even years after patients’ initial infections. She’s become a social media influencer, earning thousands of dollars and brand deals by documenting what it’s like to face life with a chronic illness . She first fell ill with COVID-19 as a teen in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, and The Denver Post has followed Lilly since 2021 through multiple hospital stints and her search for normalcy and answers as to why symptoms, including a high heart rate and brain fog, still linger. The Post last caught up with Lilly in 2022, when she wasn’t just still sick, her symptoms were getting worse and she was hospitalized with life-threatening infections. Now, Lilly said in a recent interview, she’s doing better physically, living on her own and planning to resume her education in January while using her platform on social media to educate people about her life and illness. “Filming and editing my videos — it gave me something else to focus on,” she said. On TikTok, Lilly shares her experiences with feeding tubes, medications and being interviewed by news reporters . Hundreds of thousands — sometimes millions — of people watch her individual videos. But she also shares things you’d expect from a typical 20-year-old — moving into her first apartment , traveling with friends — and it’s these things that show how far Lilly has come. Two years ago, Lilly was an 18-year-old who just wanted to go home after spending months at Denver’s Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. Any travel and college plans she entertained were on hold out of fear she’d need to return to the hospital again. Now, she’s living life outside the hospital’s walls, on her own for the first time, traveling with friends to Utah, and volunteering at a camp for chronically ill kids — and she’s sharing it with the world. Lilly was 16 when she first became sick and was hospitalized during one of Colorado’s deadliest waves of the virus. Soon after, she began developing ulcers all over her body that doctors were unable to explain and struggled to treat. When she first became ill, pediatric doctors were unprepared for patients with COVID-19 to develop persisting symptoms. Long COVID was first seen in adults, and researchers and physicians didn’t know how common it was in children and teens. A lot has changed since Lilly first became sick, and even since 2022, when her symptoms worsened to the point she had to relearn how to walk on her own and she spent most of the year in the hospital. While COVID-19 is still around, vaccines and treatments are now available. Doctors and researchers have also learned more about long COVID, including how it affects adolescents, and are working on finding better treatments, such as IVIG, for patients with persisting symptoms, said Dr. Alexandra Yonts, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. Doctors still don’t know why someone specifically develops long COVID, but there are risk factors, such as if someone has multiple symptoms when they first get sick or have autoimmune diseases, she said. Adolescent girls are at a higher risk of developing long COVID, although the condition also appears more in boys ages 5 and younger, said Yonts, director of the hospital’s post-COVID program. In 2022, researchers estimated that as many as 651,000 Coloradans had long COVID, with clinics struggling to keep up with the demand for treatment. Studies also show that the more times a person gets COVID-19, their risk of developing lingering symptoms increases, she said, adding that getting vaccinated decreases a person’s risk of getting long COVID. “We’re definitely in a much more knowledgeable place of this disease,” Yonts said. At Yonts’ clinic, doctors have found that patients can experience a range of long COVID symptoms. Fatigue and decreased exercise tolerance are among the most common. Patients also appear to fall into two groups, Yonts said. One group has more cardiovascular symptoms, such as heart palpitations and difficulty breathing. The other group has more gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms, such as headaches, vomiting and stomach pain. While there had been a period in 2021 when Lilly appeared to be doing better, she took an unexpected turn as she began vomiting and had trouble swallowing and eating. She landed in the hospital again at the end of summer 2021, missing the first days of her senior year at Lakewood High School. Lilly was eventually diagnosed with gastroparesis, which means food doesn’t move through her body when she eats, and was placed on a feeding tube. But her central line — the very thing that gave her nutrients — kept causing life-threatening infections that put her in repeatedly in the intensive-care unit. So when the autumn of 2022 rolled around and Lilly’s friends left for college without her, she decided to make the best of the situation by posting on TikTok. The social media app became not just a distraction, but a way to meet people. Lilly has met others living in Fort Collins who also follow her videos, she said. “It was a way to connect with people because it’s a lot harder in real life when your friends are gone,” Lilly said. TikTok helped Lilly not only make new friends, it also let her friends from high school better understand her illness, she said. The TikTok videos help show “that I am a normal person,” she said. Elisa Downs, Lilly’s mother, said she didn’t quite understand when her daughter started making TikToks — even as she helped make Lillly’s dance videos in the hospital. “When she really started to pick up momentum, I was, of course, worried because this world is cruel,” Downs said, noting how controversial the topic of COVID-19 can be online. But then, Downs said, she witnessed the community her daughter found online. “I saw that it was giving her a sense of purpose,” she said, adding, “She was able to really find a great network of people there who understood.“ Lilly has also been able to earn money for her TikTok videos via the platform’s Creator Fund, which pays users based on how many people view and engage with their posts. To join the fund, a person must be at least 18, have a minimum of 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 video views in the past 30 days, according to the social media app. Lilly’s videos about her illness — especially the ones about how she receives supplemental nutrition — earn the most views. One of her clips about her nighttime routine received more than 60 million views, bringing in about $5,000 alone. Lilly said she is “technically” a social media influencer — she has a manager and has started getting brand deals, such as with BeeKeeper’s Naturals, which sells natural remedies. Lilly posted a video showing her using one of the company’s products to help with her brain fog. But Lilly has other plans, too. She moved to Fort Collins from Golden in August and is adjusting to living on her own for the first time. She wants to get another job and start college next semester at Colorado State University, studying nutrition science in hopes of becoming a pediatric dietitian. “I’m excited to have a routine,” Lilly said. “Being in class — I’m nervous just because my brain... is just not where it used to be.” Physically, Lilly said, her symptoms have gotten better. She still has days where they flare and she struggles with brain fog, which makes her lose her train of thought. “I’m definitely having better days,” Lilly said, adding, “Just taking care of myself is a full-time job.” Her gastroparesis has also improved to the point where Lilly can sometimes eat food without getting sick. She craves things that she didn’t like before, such as condiments and ranch dressing, and is on a self-proclaimed cream cheese kick, especially with pizza. “It’s so good,” Lilly said. There was a time, Lilly said, when she expected that her life would go back to the way it was before the pandemic, before she got COVID-19, when she used to play soccer and go to school. “For so long we were just holding out for the normalcy,” she said. But, Lilly said, “This is my new normal.”Sara Sharif hid horror in last chat to grandad as she excitedly told him about planned trip hours before she was killed
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WASHINGTON — The Biden White House has a self-made credibility problem. And that’s inconvenient timing, considering Joe Biden’s team, fresh off a foreign trip, must shift quickly into legacy mode. When the president awkwardly, and to tepid applause this week in Angola, touted the domestic infrastructure law he helped craft, it seemed clear his legacy was on his mind. But the effectiveness of any coming sales pitch will likely be hamstrung by his pardon of son Hunter Biden , who was convicted on federal gun charges and had pleaded guilty on federal tax evasion charges. The move — which he’d previously said he wouldn’t make — has been slammed by Republican lawmakers and more than a few Democrats and its rationale lambasted by a federal judge. Karine Jean-Pierre, the president’s top spokesperson and chief image defender, told reporters, as she has so many times over the years, that they simply should not trust their lyin’ eyes — and ears. “One of the things that the president always believes is to be truthful to the American people. That is something that he always truly believes,” she said Monday, while en route to Africa aboard Air Force One, of Biden’s about-face Biden returned to Washington early Thursday morning from his multiday Angola visit, and there was no daily press briefing scheduled as travel-weary staffers, including Jean-Pierre, got some needed rest. She could return to the lectern in the White House briefing room as early as Friday. But the pardon drama has created a complication — for both the president and press secretary. After all, Biden on numerous occasions told interviewers and shouting White House press corps members that he would not pardon his troubled son. The former two-term vice president and longtime senator did so for over a year with very non-politician answers — meaning, he was both concise and clear. One example came on June 6 in France , when ABC News anchor David Muir asked Biden if he had ruled out a pardon for his son. “Yes,” Biden replied, without adding a qualifier that might be useful down the road if he reversed himself. The same goes for Jean-Pierre, who had also fielded many questions about a possible pardon. At one September 2023 briefing, this was her reply to the Hunter leniency question: “I’ve answered this question before. It was asked of me not too long ago, a couple weeks ago, and I was very clear, and I said, ‘No.’” Fast- forward to June of this year, and this was Jean-Pierre’s response to a similar query: “No. No. It’s a no. It will always be a no. Biden will not pardon his son Hunter.” Press secretaries are responsible for protecting the sitting president, spinning circumstances in his favor and deflecting blame elsewhere. Jean-Pierre’s answers were, at the time, rather refreshing because they were so clear and unequivocal. Then came Sunday’s sudden pardon. “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the courtroom — with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process,” Biden said in an evening statement. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong.” The Donald Trump-appointed federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s tax case in California strongly disagreed, stating that the president was guilty of too much revisionist history. “But two federal judges expressly rejected Mr. Biden’s arguments that the Government prosecuted Mr. Biden because of his familial relation to the President,” Judge Mark C. Scarsi, wrote in a Tuesday order responding to Hunter Biden’s notice to the court of the pardon. “And the President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges. In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people,” Scarsi wrote, adding that “nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.” A former adviser to Barack Obama’s two successful presidential campaigns, Spencer Critchley, said he believed “Biden made the right decision, but gave the wrong explanation, and that this is likely to be how history will judge it.” “Under normal circumstances, I’d say he should have stuck with his commitment to stand clear of the justice system, however, the point this time is not to overturn past decisions, but to prevent the coming authoritarian abuses of the justice system, promised by Donald Trump and his appointees,” Critchley said in a statement Thursday. “Trump has been closely following the authoritarian playbook and dismantling the institutions of democracy. That includes turning justice into a weapon, which he has specifically promised to wheel against Hunter Biden, among many others. As the old dictator’s motto goes, ‘For my friends, anything. For my enemies, justice.'” Trying to ‘break Hunter’ But Biden’s statement went in a different direction, a parental one. It contained three sentences that the father in chief opted for months against sharing with the country, which might have explained his paternal plight. “There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,” Biden said. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of Biden’s top allies, said this week that he “took the president at his word” that he would not pardon his son, adding: “So by definition, I’m disappointed and can’t support the decision.” The White House is also yet to clearly explain why Biden made such a dramatic about-face. Nor have his aides spoken to why the country should still believe his declaration in the pardon announcement that “for my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth.” The irony of the current situation is as undeniable as it is surreal. After all, it was the president, Jean-Pierre and the rest of Team Biden who spent four years telling the country about the dangers of Trump’s many false statements and lies. The tarnished credibility raises questions about Biden’s forecast of the American people’s thinking about his reversal: “They’ll be fair-minded.” Whether or not that proves true is up to history. The results of last month’s presidential election suggest an electorate that had some Biden fatigue. Whenever the president or Jean-Pierre next take questions from a jilted press corps, there likely will be pointed questions about whether the White House has been truly “fair-minded” with reporters and, more importantly, the people. Not just about Hunter Biden’s case, but on a myriad of issues. The stunning reversal has clearly allowed Republicans to pounce, another self-inflicted wound to wrap a presidency colored by them. Some GOP lawmakers contended on social media that Biden’s volte-face justified their claims of a dishonest and corrupt administration and family. Several GOP sources said Trump — who faced 91 criminal charges and whom media outlets and independent fact-checkers have cited for thousands of false statements since entering the political arena — has a chance to flip yet another script on Democrats. “President Trump’s bold leadership and direct communication style bring a unique energy to governance. ... This means clear direction and the chance to implement a vision that resonates with millions of Americans,” one former House leadership aide said in an email. “(Trump’s) ability to rally public support will be a key advantage.” ©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission . He will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars’ worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior . Ferguson is already one of the FTC’s five commissioners, which is currently made up of three Democrats and two Republicans. “Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History.” Related Articles National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television National Politics | What will happen to Social Security under Trump’s tax plan? National Politics | Republican-led states are rolling out plans that could aid Trump’s mass deportation effort The replacement of Khan likely means that the FTC will operate with a lighter touch when it comes to antitrust enforcement. The new chair is expected to appoint new directors of the FTC’s antitrust and consumer protection divisions. “These changes likely will make the FTC more favorable to business than it has been in recent years, though the extent to which is to be determined,” wrote Anthony DiResta, a consumer protection attorney at Holland & Knight, in a recent analysis . Deals that were blocked by the Biden administration could find new life with Trump in command. For example, the new leadership could be more open to a proposed merger between the country’s two biggest supermarket chains, Kroger and Albertsons, which forged a $24.6 billion deal to combine in 2022. Two judges halted the merger Tuesday night. The FTC had filed a lawsuit in federal court earlier this year to block the merger, claiming the deal would eliminate competition, leading to higher prices and lower wages for workers. The two companies say a merger would help them lower prices and compete against bigger rivals like Walmart. One of the judges said the FTC had shown it was likely to prevail in the administrative hearing. Yet given the widespread public concern over high grocery prices, the Trump administration may not fully abandon the FTC’s efforts to block the deal, some experts have said. And the FTC may continue to scrutinize Big Tech firms for any anticompetitive behavior. Many Republican politicians have accused firms such as Meta of censoring conservative views, and some officials in Trump’s orbit, most notably Vice President-elect JD Vance, have previously expressed support for Khan’s scrutiny of Big Tech firms. In addition to Fergson, Trump also announced Tuesday that he had selected Jacob Helberg as the next undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.Donald Trump is returning to the world stage. So is his trolling
Hezbollah fired into a disputed border zone held by Israel on Monday after multiple Israeli strikes inside Lebanon since a ceasefire took hold last week. The militant group said the volley, its first during the truce, was a warning shot in response to what it called repeated Israeli violations . Israeli leaders threatened to retaliate, and within hours, Israel’s military carried out a string of strikes in southern Lebanon, state media reported. There was no immediate word on casualties or what was struck. Israel has said its strikes in since the ceasefire began Wednesday have been in response to unspecified Hezbollah violations, and that under the truce deal it reserves the right to retaliate. Hezbollah began launching its attacks in solidarity with Hamas militants who are fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage . Israel’s blistering retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,429 Palestinians , more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The war in Gaza has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times . Here’s the Latest: WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is demanding the immediate release of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, saying that if they are not freed before he is sworn into office for a second term there will be “HELL TO PAY.” “Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site . He added that, “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!” It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening to directly involve the U.S. military in Israel’s ongoing campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Trump allies have said he hopes there will be a ceasefire and hostage release deal before he returns to office early next year. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. Some 100 are still held inside Gaza , around two-thirds believed to be alive. WASHINGTON — Senior American officials have had conversations with Israelis to raise questions about some of the strikes they have carried out against Hezbollah since a ceasefire went into place but have not found the Israelis to be in gross violation of the terms of the ceasefire, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive conversations with the Israelis, said those conversations were part of a mechanism that was created to ensure that ceasefire agreement is implemented. “This is that mechanism working,” the official added. White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Monday that “largely speaking the ceasefire is holding.” “We’ve gone from, you know dozens of strikes, you know, down to one a day maybe two a day,” Kirby told told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Joe Biden made his way for a visit to Angola. “That’s a tremendous, tremendous reduction. And we’re going to keep trying and see what we can do to get it down to zero so that both sides are fully implementing it. But, this is, this is the only it’s only a, a week or so old.” — By Aamer Madhani JERUSALEM — Hezbollah fired into a disputed border zone held by Israel on Monday, the militant group’s first attack since its ceasefire with Israel took hold last week, after Lebanon accused Israel of violating the truce more than 50 times in recent days. The Israeli military said two projectiles were launched toward Mount Dov, a disputed Israeli-held territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel meet. Israel said the projectiles fell in open areas and no injuries were reported. Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired on an Israeli military position in the area as a “defensive and warning response” after what it called “repeated violations” of the ceasefire deal by Israel. It said complaints to mediators tasked with monitoring the ceasefire “were futile in stopping these violations.” The U.S.- and French-brokered ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday calling for a 60-day halt in fighting, aiming to end more than a year of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel. Since then, Israel has carried out a number of strikes in Lebanon, most recently on Monday, when a drone strike killed a man on a motorcycle in southern Lebanon and another hit a Lebanese army bulldozer in the northeastern town of Hermel, wounding a soldier. The Lebanese army had stayed on the sidelines of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel says the strikes are in response to Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire, without giving specifics. BEIRUT — Lebanon’s parliament speaker on Monday accused Israel of committing 54 breaches of the ceasefire that ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel, demanding urgent intervention to halt what he called “flagrant violations.” Speaking to the Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri condemned Israel’s “aggressive actions,” including the alleged demolition of homes in border villages, the persistent overflight of Israeli reconnaissance drones, and airstrikes that have caused casualties. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Berri’s assertions. Israel says it reserves the right under the ceasefire deal to respond to perceived ceasefire violations. An Israeli drone strike on Monday hit a Lebanese army military bulldozer in the northeastern town of Hermel, wounding a soldier, the Lebanese army said in a statement. Also on Monday, an Israeli drone strike targeting a motorcycle in Jdeidet Marjayoun in southern Lebanon killed one person, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. In Bint Jbeil province, a drone strike injured one person, the state-run National News Agency said. On Saturday, two people were killed in an airstrike on Marjayoun province, Lebanon’s state media said. Berri called on the technical committee established to monitor the ceasefire to take immediate action, urging it to “oblige Israel to halt its violations and withdraw from Lebanese territories without delay.” He said that Lebanon and Hezbollah have fully adhered to the terms of the ceasefire since the early hours of Wednesday. Berri is the leader of the Shiite Amal movement, which is closely allied with the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Monday one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit a motorcycle, while the Lebanese army said that a soldier was wounded in an Israeli strike on a military bulldozer at an army base. The Israeli military said that it carried out a series of strikes in Lebanon on Sunday and Monday, including one in the same area where the soldier was said to have been wounded. It said it struck several military vehicles in Lebanon’s Bekaa province as well as strikes on Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon. The incidents underscored the fragility of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah reached after nearly 14 months of cross-border fighting. Since the ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday, Israel has struck several times in response to what it says have been ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. Lebanon has accused Israel of violating the deal but so far Hezbollah has not resumed its rocket fire. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Monday rejected accusations that Israel is violating the tenuous ceasefire agreement, saying it was responding to Hezbollah violations. In a post on X, Saar said that he made that point in a call with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot. France, along with the U.S., helped broker the deal and is part of an international monitoring committee meant to ensure the sides uphold their commitments. Israel says that it reserves the right under the deal to respond to perceived ceasefire violations. TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Monday an Israeli American soldier who was believed to have been taken hostage alive on Oct. 7, 2023, is now presumed to have been killed during Hamas’ attack and his body taken into Gaza. Neutra, 21, was a New York native who enlisted in the Israeli military and was captured when Hamas attacked southern Israel. Neutra’s parents, Ronen and Orna, led a public campaign while he was thought to be alive for their son’s freedom. They spoke at protests in the U.S. and Israel, addressed the Republican National Convention this year and kept up ties with the Biden administration in their crusade to secure their son’s release. In a statement announcing the death, the military did not say how it came to the conclusion over Neutra’s fate. He was one of seven American Israelis still held in Gaza, four of whom are now said to be dead. Hamas released a video of one, Edan Alexander, over the weekend, indicating he was still alive. In late summer, Israel said Hamas killed Hersh Goldberg-Polin , another prominent Israeli American hostage, along with five other captives, whose bodies the Israeli military recovered. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Some 100 captives are still held inside Gaza , around two-thirds believed to be alive. Iraqi militias supported by Iran deployed in Syria on Monday to back the government’s counteroffensive against a surprise advance by insurgents who seized the largest city of Aleppo, a militia official and a war monitor said. Insurgents led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a two-pronged attack on Aleppo last week and the countryside around Idlib before moving toward neighboring Hama province. Government troops built a fortified defensive line in northern Hama in an attempt to stall the insurgents’ momentum while jets on Sunday pounded rebel-held lines. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus Sunday and announced Tehran’s full support for his government. He later arrived for talks in Ankara, Turkey, one of the rebels' main backers. Iran has been of Assad’s principal political and military supporters and deployed military advisers and forces after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war. Tehran-backed Iraqi militias already in Syria mobilized and additional forces crossed the border to support them, said the Iraqi militia official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. According to Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 200 Iraqi militiamen on pickups crossed into Syria overnight through the strategic Bou Kamal. They were expected to deploy in Aleppo to support the Syrian army’s pushback against the insurgents, the monitor said. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the warships and three American merchant vessels they were escorting through the Gulf of Aden. No damage or injuries were reported. U.S. Central Command said late Sunday that the destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane shot down and destroyed three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three drones and one anti-ship cruise missile. The merchant ships were not identified. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement and said they had targeted the U.S. destroyers and “three supply ships belonging to the American army in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.” Houthi attacks for months have targeted shipping through a waterway where $1 trillion in goods pass annually over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon. A ceasefire was announced in Lebanon last week. The USS Stockdale was involved in a similar attack on Nov. 12 . Read more of the AP's coverage of the Middle East wars: https://apnews.com/hub/mideast-warsStock market today: Rising tech stocks pull Wall Street toward another record