WAR WITH IRAN - DAY 228 TUE OCTOBER 13,26 - THIS HEADLINE ALWAYS GETS NEWS"IDF :UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT THAT TRIGGERED SIRENS IN NORTH WAS LIKELY A BALLOON.

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)

WAR WITH IRAN - DAY 228 TUE OCTOBER 13,26 - THIS HEADLINE ALWAYS GETS NEWS"IDF :UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT THAT TRIGGERED SIRENS IN NORTH WAS LIKELY A BALLOON.

THE NEXT US-ISRAEL HIT ON IRAN SHOULD BE VERSE 37. ALL OFFENSIVE NUKE SITES MISSLES,DRONES,AND OF COURSE KHEMENI AND THE IRGC GUARDS.THEN AFTER IRANS REGIME CHANGE. MUSLIMS COME TO JESUS BY THE MILLIONS.

JEREMEIAH 49:32-39 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR OR ARAK NUKE SITES AND ALL OFENSIVE WEAPONS DESTROYED IN IRAN)
Jeremiah 49:32-39    
32 Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners [of their hair] cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says Yahweh.
33 Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.(Location & Size: It was strategically located along the Via Maris (Way of the Sea), a major trade route connecting Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia.)
34 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam,(IRAN) in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
35 Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRANS OFFENSIVE WEAPONS) the chief of their might.(MISSLES AND NUKE SITES)
36 On Elam (IRAN) will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(SINCE 1979 IRANIANS HAVE GOTTIN OUT OF IRAN BECAUSE OF KHEMENI AND HIS APOCOPOLIPTIC DEATH CULT BELIEF-BLACK HATER 12ERS)
37 I will cause Elam (IRAN) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life;(ISRAEL THE LITTLE SATAN AND THE U.S THE BIG SATAN) and I will bring evil on them, (MISSLES) even my fierce anger,(FIRE) says Yahweh; and I will send the sword after them,(IRANS OFFENSIVE WEAPONS) until I have consumed them; (DESTROYED THEM ALL NUKE SITES,MISSLES ETC)
38 and I will set my throne in Elam,(IRAN WILL BECOME A CHRISTIAN NATION) and will destroy from there king (KHEMENI CLAN) and princes, says Yahweh.(IRANIAN ARMY GUARDS)
39 But it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of Elam,(IRAN) says Yahweh.(WERE IN THE LATTER DAYS NOW)

WHEN ARE THE 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS IN ISRAEL IN THE SPRING TIME.(GET READY ISLAM TO BE BIRD SEED FOR THESE BIRDS)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m0bXU5Xqc5M
The 500 million migratory birds in Israel during the spring arrive from Africa and head toward Europe and Asia, with the peak migration occurring in March and April. While migration starts in late February, the most intense movements, particularly of birds of prey, storks, and pelicans, occur during the third week of March and continue into April. 
Key Details on the Spring Migration
Peak Period: Mid-March through April.
Main Migration Route: The birds use the Great Rift Valley, which includes the Hula Valley and Eilat, acting as a "bottleneck" where millions of birds fly through the narrow land bridge.
Best Spots: The Hula Lake Park (Northern Israel) and the Eilat Birding Center (Southern Israel) are primary locations for observing the migration.
Key Species: Hundreds of thousands of white storks, along with black kites, raptors, and pelicans, pass through over these months.
uration: The spring migration runs from late February and continues into June, though the heaviest traffic is in March/April. 

The 500 million migratory birds fly over Israel in the fall between late August and mid-December. The peak migration period for the autumn, when the highest volume of bird traffic occurs, is typically October and November. 
Key Fall Migration Details
Location: The Hula Valley (Agamon Hula Park) in northern Israel is the premier spot to witness this phenomenon.
Timing: Migration starts as early as late June with some waders, but intensifies from mid-August through November.
Peak Festival: The "Annual Hula Valley Bird Festival" is usually held in November to align with the peak migration traffic.
Key Species: Many birds of prey (raptors), including honey buzzards and steppe eagles, cross during this time, along with massive flocks of storks and cranes.
While roughly 500 million birds pass through in the autumn on their way to Africa, the same number crosses again in the spring (mid-February to May) on their way back to Europe and Asia. 

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

Iran said shoring up defenses at nuclear sites, warning it could invade neighbors if war resumes-Tehran reportedly preparing population for a return to fighting, issued warnings it could target American warships and Saudi oil facilities as it seeks to deter renewed US strikes-By ToI Staff and Agencies Today, 6:40 pm-OCT 13,26

Iran is strengthening defenses around its nuclear sites and preparing for possible renewed fighting with the United States, while Iranian officials have warned of possible ground incursions into neighboring countries, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.These preparations come as Tehran seeks to deter another American attack, which officials believe could come after the US November 3 midterm elections, according to the report.Iranian officials have also warned regional counterparts that Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities could be targeted if fighting resumes, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the warnings. This would compound woes for the Saudis, who have faced multiple attacks in recent days form the Iran-backed Houthis, including repeated strikes on Riyadh airport.Iran’s top national security official, Mohsen Rezaei, reportedly said on Sunday that Tehran could also target the United Arab Emirates, and data centers and internet cables across the region.At the end of September, Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Jalali, the official in charge of the country’s contingency plans, told reporters that the country was installing shelters and backup supplies to continue operating in a crisis.Tehran has separately told mediators that it could step up attacks on American forces, including attempts to sink US warships in the region and kill their crews, according to the report.Iran has also reportedly strengthened defenses around nuclear sites.Last month, the IAEA reported signs of construction at the Pickaxe Mountain and Natanz nuclear sites. The Journal, citing an analysis of Vantor satellite images by the Institute for Science and International Security, said it appeared to be the construction of makeshift dirt mounds to obstruct ground raids.Iranian authorities also have begun preparing civilians for a potential return to conflict by sending paramilitary forces to read stories about war to children in kindergartens, hosting rallies and advertising training in the use of shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles, the report added.These efforts may also be an attempt to distract the Iranian population from mounting economic challenges it has been grappling with as the US tightens sanctions.“The war footing is serving them well for now due to an impasse on many fronts—diplomatically, economically and politically,” Sanam Vakil, Middle East director at London’s Chatham House think tank, told the Journal. “With a new war, the Islamic Republic could dig itself out of the cul-de-sac it has dug for itself.”Meanwhile, the US military has also been preparing for possible renewed fighting, with a third aircraft carrier strike group and another Marine expeditionary unit heading towards the Middle East.While campaigning for Republican candidates last week, US President Donald Trump hinted that the war could end soon before or after the midterm elections, but left open the possibility that military operations against Iran could continue, according to the AP.The war started on February 28, when ​the US and Israel attacked Iran. Tehran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases.The conflict has weighed on Trump’s domestic approval ratings and on fellow Republicans seeking to keep their narrow majorities in Congress in the November elections. About 60% of Americans, including one in four Republicans, disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.The US and Iran signed a short-lived interim agreement in June that intended to establish a 60-day ceasefire and provide a framework for a permanent peace deal.The deal collapsed with renewed military actions and disputes over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas flowed before the war.

Katz announces ban on fiber optic drones in Israeli airspace amid lingering threat-Defense minister says ban is temporary until solutions to threat can be found; exemptions given to security agencies and Civil Aviation Authority-By Emanuel Fabian 13 October 2026, 8:23 pm

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said he will sign a temporary order banning the use of fiber-optic cable-guided and cellular-guided drones in Israeli airspace, saying they posed a broad security threat.The “special security order” will be signed on Sunday, and it will be valid for six months, Katz’s office said, adding that it is a temporary measure “intended to provide a security response until additional solutions are found.”The order will only apply to drones that are guided by fiber-optic cable or carry SIM cards and utilize commercial mobile networks, rather than standard radio frequencies.The proposed wording of the decree carves out specific exemptions for activities carried out by or on behalf of security agencies, as well as for fiber-optic and SIM-controlled drones that received approvals from Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority before the order is slated to take effect.The order also establishes “an exemptions committee to consider requests for exemptions from the order,” according to Katz.Katz’s office said the decision was made “against the backdrop of concrete intelligence and growing threats from Israel’s enemies, both inside and outside the country, including drone attacks, attempts to harm senior officials, the use of drones by criminals and crime families, intelligence gathering, and smuggling.”“Given the severity and variety of the threats, a response is required both in security zones and along the borders, as well as to drone terrorism inside Israel,” the statement said.Katz said the flight ban is just one step in a series of measures intended to contend with the drone threat, which also include import restrictions and other regulatory measures.The move was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz in a recent security cabinet meeting, following discussions and staff work led by the National Security Council in cooperation with security agencies, the statement said.Fiber-optic drones, which are guided via a cable and therefore immune to electronic jamming, have posed a major challenge for the Israel Defense Forces during its operations in Lebanon, killing Israeli soldiers.In August, Channel 12 reported that the defense establishment had identified a significant increase in attempts by terror groups to launch explosive drones – including fiber-optic drones – within Israel at targets across the country, with officials said to warn that there was no effective operational solution to the emerging threat.

Jewish sites also targeted in arson and sabotage attacks-MI5 chief says Iran is targeting military bases in UK, airbase plot ‘not unique’Ken McCallum: UK security agency has seen ‘major shift’ in Iran’s overseas attack ambitions, Tehran now looking to ‘come at harder targets, like military sites’
By Jill Lawless 13 October 2026, 5:21 pm

LONDON (AP) — Iran is trying to hit military sites in the UK and the suspected plot to attack a US-run military air base in September is “not unique,” the head of Britain’s MI5 spy agency said Tuesday.Ken McCallum, who leads the UK’s domestic security service, said Tehran is seeking to intensify its attacks in Britain beyond the traditional targets of Iranians opposed to the country’s Islamic authorities.That has included arson and sabotage attacks on Jewish sites that Britain says were carried out by Iranian proxies.McCallum said another “major shift this year has been Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets, like military sites.”The incident at RAF Fairford “is not unique. There have been other examples, not just in the UK but around the world,” McCallum said.McCallum delivered a speech outlining major threats to the UK as detectives investigate a suspected terror plot against the US-run base in western England, which has been used to bomb Iran during this year’s war.Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes near the base on September 27 as armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area. Police later said they had found a quantity of an accelerant — gasoline — in three vans at the site, but no explosives.British authorities have linked Tehran to the incident, which led the US to pull its bombers from RAF Fairford. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday that the apparent plot was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.Seven men in their 20s have been arrested and released on bail under investigation.Iran has denied involvement, although it has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.MI5 says AI could bring bioweapon risk-In a stark speech, McCallum argued that the UK faces a “new era of national security” and is at a turning point equivalent to the 9/11 attacks a quarter century ago.He said his agency’s work countering state threats – chiefly from Russia, Iran and China – has quadrupled in the past decade, and claimed that both Russia and Iran are expanding their hybrid warfare campaigns against the UK.Meanwhile, technology is racing ahead, with artificial intelligence “supercharging” the cybersecurity battle between attackers and defenders, he said.McCallum said terror plotters have used artificial intelligence for reconnaissance and attacks, including AI-enabled drones. Even more concerning, he said, is “AI’s potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons.”He said terror groups “would dearly love” to have chemical, biological or radiological weapons, but these are hard to obtain.“One risk is that AI could enable dangerous knowledge to get into the hands of people we would all rather didn’t have that knowledge,” he said. “A second and different risk… is the possibility that AI could generate novel pathogens not previously seen.”McCallum said MI5 has set up a new AI Threat Assessment Center to try to keep ahead of the risks.“Human history has given us no experience of facing an actor which is smarter than we are. It is capable of outthinking us. This is genuinely novel, and deserves the serious attention it is getting, including in MI5,” he said.

IDF: Unidentified object that triggered sirens in north was likely a balloon-Military says it hasn’t determined origin or purpose of mysterious item, yet to be found and size unknown, that drifted across border, but has ruled out drone or UAV-By Emanuel Fabian 13 October 2026, 12:31 pm

The Israeli military said Tuesday it has determined that an unidentified flying object that triggered sirens in a northern border community on Saturday night was likely a balloon.The object set off sirens in the Western Galilee village of Arab al-Aramshe, near the Lebanese border.It came amid lingering tensions with Lebanon, where an uneasy ceasefire is in place following a conflict with Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, which used drones to attack northern communities and IDF soldiers during the fighting.Following an “in-depth investigation,” the military said it was “most likely a balloon-like object or a device that floats using hot air,” such as a sky lantern. Its size remains unclear.“At this stage, it is not possible to determine its origin or purpose with certainty,” the military added, but noted that it determined the object was “not a drone or UAV.”“It may have been a harmless object that drifted into Israeli territory,” the military said.The IDF said Israeli Air Force surveillance and detection systems detected the object, and “tracked it and directed forces on the ground as they handled the incident.”The military said it reinforced security in communities in the area, “until all checks related to the matter were completed.”So far, the IDF has not located the object, but there are no changes in the Home Front Command guidelines for civilians.The IDF also commented on recent false aerial detections and interceptor launches over southern Lebanon, saying that the Air Force has been constantly working to thwart threats while prioritizing the safety of Israeli civilians and troops.“The difference between a drone and a bird is very small, and therefore no risks are taken,” the military said, adding that “once a threat is detected, a rapid process is carried out until the target is intercepted.”“The IDF continues to conduct searches in the area, both in the air and on the ground, while continuously examining its detection systems to improve identification capabilities and draw lessons from operational incidents of this kind,” the military added.

7 YEARS OF DEATH AND HELL.

REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.(CAN YOU SAY TORNADOES,HURRICANES,VOLCANOES,EARTH QUAKES,LANDSLIDES,FLASH FLOODING,EXPLOSIONS,SNOW STORMS,THEN FINALLY NUKESAND ANY OTHER JUDGEMENTS THE EARTH CAN VOMIT THE SINNERS OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH WITH.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

2 Peter 3:6-7 Amplified Bible (AMP) (HOT SUN, NUKES ETC)
6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 
7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON THE MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS-PROPHECY SIGNS) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)

ISAIAH 14:12-14
12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14  I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

Joel 3:2-King James Version (YOU DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF - YOUR POKING GOD IN THE EYE - GOD SAYS AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH- YOU WANNA DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF -  HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION 4 BILLION DIE ON EARTH.
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

LUKE 19:40
40 And He answered and said unto them, “I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Saudi Arabia strikes oil facility in Yemen capital Sanaa as Houthis up threats-Footage shows major oil fire on outskirts of rebel-held capital, addition strikes within city; Iran-backed group calls for evacuation of Riyadh airport, Aramco facilities-By Agencies 13 October 2026, 11:18 pm

Saudi Arabia carried out new airstrikes Tuesday on the Houthi rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa, the Houthis said, after the Saudi-led coalition warned civilians to stay away from an oil depot on the city outskirts, part of a rapidly escalating war between the sides.Witnesses in Sanaa reported hearing explosions, and the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV channel said “Saudi aggression targets the oil company in Al-Sabaha, west of Sanaa.”Footage posted to social media showed a large oil fire burning in al-Subaha, just outside the capital. Other footage showed the aftermath of several smaller strikes within Sanaa.The Saudi-led coalition confirmed later Tuesday it had targeted a Yemeni oil company facility in Sanaa and two sites in other provinces, hours after urging civilians to evacuate the area of the strike in the Houthi-held capital.Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said on X that the facilities, including those in Saada and Dhamar provinces in western Yemen, were used to “supply the war effort” by the Houthis to “threaten the kingdom, Yemen, the southern Red Sea and waterways.”The strikes came as Saudi Arabia was reportedly scrambling to determine how its air defenses failed to intercept a barrage of missiles and drones fired by the Houthis, including an attack on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday that killed at least 13 people and wounded over 300.Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes on oil facilities in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, hitting a petroleum station in Sanaa, storage tanks at Ras Isa port and another site in Hodeidah governorate’s Bajil district. pic.twitter.com/VqoQLjsXlR — Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) October 13, 2026-Swiftly responding to the earlier coalition warning, the Houthis had issued a threat to target Riyadh’s international airport, a refinery, and an Aramco facility in Dammam if the strike went ahead.“The Yemeni Armed Forces urge all citizens to immediately evacuate and move away from targets that our forces will strike should the Saudi enemy target,” military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X, identifying the three targets.Earlier Tuesday, the Houthis renewed their warning against using Saudi airspace, Houthi-controlled media reported. Several airlines have suspended service to the kingdom because of the Houthi attacks on airports.In a statement published by the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency, the Houthi-run foreign ministry referred to Saudi Arabia as the “Kingdom of the Horn of Satan” and said the kingdom “must realize that security, stability, and sovereignty must belong to everyone; otherwise, no one will enjoy them.”Saudi Arabia was still weathering fresh attacks on Tuesday, with the coalition saying its forces intercepted three drones north of the kingdom’s capital Riyadh.Blasts were heard over the Saudi capital again late Monday, with the Saudi coalition saying it intercepted a Houthi missile and the group announcing it had again targeted the airport.Saudi leaders vow consequences for Houthi attacksThe Saudi cabinet, chaired by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, issued a statement saying the Houthis would face consequences for their repeated attacks on the kingdom.The cabinet said in a statement carried by the official SPA press agency that the kingdom “will not allow its security or freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait to be threatened.”It added that the Iran-backed Houthis “will face the consequences of their crimes and repeated attacks” on Saudi airports, holy cities and economic facilities, following several deadly strikes on the kingdom.Many countries have issued travel warnings to their citizens in Saudi Arabia, most recently France, which told its citizens to avoid the airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam on Tuesday.The latest conflict between the Saudis and the Houthis began last month after the rebels seized key areas along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical waterway for the transport of Gulf oil and other goods at the southern end of the Red Sea off Yemen.The Saudi-led coalition, backing forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, has been trying to retake them.Saudi Arabia has been seeking wider support from allies for its campaign against the Houthis and to help it ward off their missile and drone attacks.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told bin Salman on Tuesday that Ankara would stand by the kingdom, the Turkish presidency said, but without giving details on any specific new line of support. Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia this summer, though Turkey still needs to ratify the treaty in parliament.Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called for the Houthis to immediately halt attacks on Saudi Arabia.“There is no justification for these attacks, and they cannot be accepted,” Abdelatty told Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a phone call Tuesday.Abdelatty also called for prioritizing diplomacy and a political solution to the conflict between Iran and the United States to avert “further escalation and instability” in the region, according to the Egyptian readout of the call.

Education Ministry expected to ban hiking on northern border-Teen killed, 24 injured by Hezbollah munition found on hike near Lebanon border
Students, teachers from ORT Ma’alot school injured after teen picks up previously unexploded ordnance, sparking detonation; two boys in serious condition, others moderately or lightly hurt-By Emanuel Fabian, Stav Levaton and Lazar Berman -12 October 2026, 7:40 pm

A teenager was killed and 24 school students and teachers were wounded, some of them seriously, in an explosion in northern Israel near the Lebanon border on Monday, where the group was hiking.The group of students and teachers from the ORT Ma’alot school were hiking the Naftali Mountains Forest scenic route in the Ramim Ridge area when, at around 3:30 p.m., a piece of unexploded ordnance, believed by the Israel Defense Forces to be a cluster submunition from a Hezbollah rocket, detonated.During the recent war, Hezbollah launched several Grad rockets containing dozens of BRB1-type (also known as A-09) submunitions at northern Israel. The rockets spread the submunitions over wide areas, and they often do not explode on impact.Although a sign posted by the KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund warned hikers away from the area, Monday’s hike had been approved by authorities.One of the schoolchildren is believed to have come across the unexploded submunition during the hike and put it in his backpack. Several minutes later, the submunition exploded, according to a preliminary probe by authorities.Another account, delivered by the commander of the Israel Police’s Northern District, Dep. Comm. Meir Eliyahu, said that the ordnance exploded “in the hands” of one of the students.A photo circulated online showed the cluster bomb before it exploded.The resulting blast left one teenager, a 14-year-old boy, dead, and injured 24 teens and adults to varying degrees, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.First responders carried out intensive resuscitation attempts before the teen was pronounced dead at the scene of the blast.MDA said that two boys, both around 14, were in serious condition with shrapnel wounds across their bodies, and 10 people — two adults and eight teenaged boys — were in moderate condition.Another 12 students were assessed at the scene for light injuries, all of whom MDA said were in good condition.The group was evacuated to three hospitals in northern Israel for treatment.Ziv Medical Center in Safed said it received 14 of the injured hikers — one in serious condition, three in moderate condition, and 10 who were lightly hurt — while the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya said it was treating the other seriously injured teen, as well as five of those moderately hurt.Rambam Healthcare Center in Haifa received the final four members of the group, three teenagers and one adult, who were moderately and lightly hurt.One of the responding medics, David Radko, recounted arriving at the scene of the blast and seeing the injured “scattered along the road.”“Some were holding onto and trying to help their wounded friends,” he said in a statement to the press. “Further along the route, I saw those with more severe injuries.”He commended the students for acting swiftly to help their injured peers and said some of them were able to follow his instructions to apply tourniquets to stem the flow of blood.Following the blast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was in contact with MDA chief Eli Bin, as well as Education Minister Yoav Kisch, and his own military secretary, Maj. Gen. Guy Markizeno, and was conducting “ongoing situational assessments.”According to the Prime Minister’s Office, he told the IDF Home Front Command to reiterate warnings to the public about ordnance.The premier also canceled his remaining plans for the day, including a scheduled visit to the West Bank and an appearance on the pro-government Channel 14, and instead joined Kisch in visiting some of the injured students in the hospital.The military, having launched a preliminary investigation into the incident, confirmed later on Monday that the ordnance “was likely a cluster bomb belonging to the Hezbollah terror organization that had been left in the area and exploded.”It said the incident was under further review, and that army sappers were scanning the area.Israel Police Commissioner Danny Levy also told reporters at the scene that police sappers had determined the ordnance was likely a submunition from a Hezbollah rocket.The hike in the Naftali Mountains had been approved by authorities, Levy said, adding that he would be issuing an order limiting further hikes in the area for several days until it is confirmed clear of any additional ordnance.In addition, Channel 12 reported that Kisch was expected to announce a ban on all school hikes along Israel’s northern border until further notice.The approvals for Monday’s hike were given despite a sign posted by the KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund near the site of the explosion, warning hikers not to enter forested areas and campsites due to “war damage.”The sign read: “Following war damage, the Jewish National Fund is working to restore damaged sites while maintaining the security, safety and well-being of visitors. There is an absolute ban on entering forests and campsites!”It added in Hebrew, Arabic, and English: “DANGER! NO PASSAGE!”In addition, the KKL-JNF website featured a notice from May 25, 2025, stating that the Naftali Mountains Forest bike trail and scenic route, where Monday’s explosion occurred, “are closed due to the restoration of war damage.”Condolences and well wishes for the injured poured in from lawmakers across the political spectrum on Monday evening.Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot said his heart was with “the family of the person killed, the injured, and their families.”“I commend the security and rescue forces working at the scene and join all Israelis in praying for the wounded’s speedy recovery,” he added.B’Yachad chair Naftali Bennett posted on X the text of Psalm 130, which is recited in times of distress, and said he was “praying with all of Israel for the recovery of the students and teachers.”Shas chair Aryeh Deri also attached the prayer to his statement, saying his thoughts were with the injured and their families and that he is praying for their “complete and speedy recovery.”“I share in the profound grief of the family of the person killed and wish all the wounded a speedy recovery,” Opposition Leader and B’Yachad No. 2 Yair Lapid said.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

How cancer cells survive chemo: Israeli researchers find ‘guardian proteins’ protect tumors-Ben-Gurion University scientists show that destroying such proteins forces cancer cells to self-destruct, in potential key to overcoming chemotherapy resistance-By Diana Bletter 12 October 2026, 4:15 pm

The exact switch that determines whether cancer cells survive chemotherapy or self-destruct has long remained a mystery.Now, in peer-reviewed research, scientists in Dr. Aeid Igbaria’s lab at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev say they have identified two guardian proteins that hold open an emergency survival valve, allowing cancer cells to stay alive after the treatment.Igbaria led the study alongside co-lead authors Laila Abu Madegam and Noa Gavriel, and researcher Raifu Tolulope Adebisi, all from BGU’s Department of Life Sciences.“When we talk about cancer, it’s like we are talking about playing chess,” Igbaria told The Times of Israel in a Zoom conference call. “Cancer is wild. We don’t know how cancer will respond, but this research could open up a lot of advancement in the treatment of solid cancers.”The findings, published in the journal Redox Biology, revealed a precise molecular blueprint, providing insights to help researchers develop treatments to overcome chemotherapy resistance in aggressive tumors.‘A cancer cell is a different beast’Igbaria said that when he began his research several years ago, he was interested in glioblastoma, widely considered one of the most aggressive and complicated forms of brain cancer.“What we discovered then is that the architecture and the structure of cancer cells are very different from that of normal cells,” he said. “A cancer cell is a totally different beast. There are no rules. Proteins can move from one room to another room inside a cell, with different functions.”During his postdoctoral work at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), Igbaria focused on the cell’s inner protein factory, the endoplasmic reticulum, which manufactures, processes, and folds proteins.His latest research focused on two guardian proteins (DNAJB12 and DNAJB14) that sit on the endoplasmic reticulum’s wall.The research team used laboratory drug treatments and physiological stress across human cell lines to study the impact of mild stress on the cell.Igbaria said that under normal conditions, the endoplasmic reticulum acts as a factory that folds proteins and keeps them locked inside to manage routine cellular operations.However, chemotherapy creates stress on the cell, causing the two guardian proteins to open an emergency valve, which triggers protein reflux. This process allows protective proteins to escape into the cytosol, the cell’s liquid interior. Once there, the escaped proteins take on a new defense role, actively blocking self-destruction enzymes and keeping the cancer cell alive despite the treatment.“Instead of a passive structural breakdown, the cell actively measures stress levels through the integrity of these chemical bonds,” Igbaria explained. “But if the chemical bonds between the guardian proteins are broken, the guardians fall apart, clearing the path for the cell to undergo programmed self-destruction, in a process known as apoptosis.”Igbaria added that the same molecular switch operates in heart cells during oxygen deprivation. Controlling this process could lead to new therapies that prevent widespread heart tissue damage following a heart attack.Understanding why cells survive or self-destruct-Dr. Francisco Laurindo, associate professor and head of the Vascular Biology Unit at the Heart Institute (INCOR), University of São Paulo School of Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil, told The Times of Israel that understanding how cells choose between “surviving stress and self-destructing is a major goal in biology and medicine.”“Dr. Igbaria discovered a novel adaptive mechanism,” said Laurindo, who was not involved in the research.Igbaria grew up in Mu’awiya, a small village of about 2000 people in the Wadi Ara area of central Israel.He completed his studies in the village, and then his bachelor’s degree in biology at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.He said his parents always encouraged him to study.His uncle Ahmad Igbaria is a professor at Tel Aviv University. A cousin, Dr. Abed Agbarya, the director of the oncology department in Haifa’s Bnei Zion Medical Center, participated in research to develop an inexpensive blood test for diagnosing lung cancer.The death of Igbaria’s father from lung cancer at a young age propelled Igbaria to switch from chemistry to biology in the hope of finding a cure. He said that cancer in the Arab Israeli community “is increasing, and the age is decreasing.”“Sadly, cancer is becoming very common,” he said. “That is what pushes me. It’s the personal story behind my research.”

ONE YEAR INTO THE SO CALLED CEASE FIRE.THE NON EXISTANT PALESTINIANS (BUT ARABS) NO SUCH THING EVER AS A PALESTINIAN (MADE UP NAME BY THE UK.ARE STILL LYING TO GET THE ADVANTAGE.

Inside story 'There's anger at everyone'One year into ceasefire, vexed Gazans say they’re still living like war never ended-Strip has seen little rehabilitation or return to normalcy since Oct. 2025, with residents still in tents and fearing daily airstrikes. Blame, they say, goes beyond Hamas or Israel By Nurit Yohanan 12 October 2026, 9:45 pm

Nael, a resident of Gaza City, was preparing on Sunday to move back into his home, which suffered extensive damage from an Israeli airstrike during the Gaza war.To get his home at least somewhat habitable, Nael, who asked that his real name not be used, had installed tarps in place of the walls that had once protected him from the elements. A destroyed staircase was being replaced with metal stairs; Nael told The Times of Israel by phone that the new steps had cost him NIS 5,000, money he was forced to borrow from an acquaintance.“I’m going back to a half-destroyed house with a leaking roof, but it’s better than living in a tent or renting an apartment, which you can’t even find,” said the Gazan, who had been living in a rented apartment before his landlord asked him to move out.A year after a ceasefire ended two years of fighting that left Gaza in ruin, living conditions in the Strip remain as crude and rudimentary as Nael’s half-destroyed home, with hundreds of thousands still stuck in ramshackle housing and living in severely degraded conditions.Gazans and humanitarian monitors say poverty and unemployment remain rampant, with most still reliant on international aid; infrastructure is still in deep disrepair; lawlessness feels unchecked; Israeli airstrikes still constitute a near-daily menace; and hopes for a better horizon are dim as ever.The lack of progress or improvement since the conflict ostensibly halted on October 10, 2025, has fueled disappointment and anger, according to Gazans who spoke to The Times of Israel.At fault, they say, are all parties, including both Israel and Hamas, which continues to hold a significant degree of power over the rump of the Strip where nearly all 2 million Gazans now reside.“There’s anger at everyone,” said Ahmed, a Gazan who, like Nael, asked to be identified with a pseudonym. “Everyone in Gaza says nobody was honest with us. Everyone — Hamas, Fatah, the international community, the Arab countries — said they would help us.”None came through.In October 2025, when the ceasefire took effect, the UN estimated that some 1.5 million people in Gaza were in need of emergency shelter assistance.A comprehensive May report by the World Bank and the United Nations concluded that the war had caused “catastrophic destruction of the housing stock.” The study found that more than 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza — roughly 60 percent of the population — had lost their homes to Israeli bombardment.Others were rendered homeless by being unable to access properties in the part of the enclave that remained under the control of the IDF as part of the ceasefire.A year later, the housing crisis remains severe: according to the UN’s Shelter Cluster, which monitors housing needs in the Strip, 65% of Gaza’s population — approximately 1.37 million people — are still living in tents and makeshift shelters that offer almost no protection from the elements.Among them is Ahmed, who has been living in a tent for the past several years.Last winter, the tent collapsed under heavy rain. Now, before the rainy season has even begun, he said his main concern is rats getting inside, fearing they could harm his newborn daughter.An analysis published in August classified 94% of the population as having shelter needs ranging from inadequate provisions to critical deficiencies.“Gaza’s shelter crisis remains overwhelmingly severe and widespread,” the Shelter Cluster study reported. “Households require support not only to repair or replace temporary shelters, but also to restore the essential conditions that allow them to cook, sleep, maintain hygiene, store food and water, and live safely and with dignity.”Beyond housing, infrastructure has largely not been rebuilt. Immediately after the ceasefire, several humanitarian organizations carried out work to clear rubble and reopen main roads across the Strip to allow people to move around, but beyond that, there has been no large-scale rubble removal.According to a July 2026 OCHA report, only 1% of the rubble had been cleared from roads and essential facilities by that point.The electricity infrastructure has also not been restored, after 90% of it was destroyed amid the fighting, according to the UN. People rely on generators and solar panels, with some paying by the hour to use them, for example, to charge their phones.As for water, 71% of water and sanitation infrastructure had been damaged as of August 2026, according to the UN. Aside from parts of central Gaza, where the infrastructure has remained more or less intact for those still living in houses rather than tents, people buy water delivered by tanker trucks or rely on humanitarian organizations, just as they did during the war.‘A ceasefire for one side only’Meanwhile, persisting airstrikes by Israeli forces have Gazans feeling as if the ceasefire is only on paper anyway.“They bomb every day,” Nael said. “There’s shelling at any moment, without warning. I walk down the street and I’m afraid. My children walk down the street and I’m afraid for them,” he said.The IDF says it carries out strikes in Gaza to thwart threats to troops and keep Hamas from rebuilding its military wing, but has also carried out attacks on figures identified as having participated in the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.Some 5,000 Gazans led by Hamas entered Israel during the attack, carrying out massacres in towns and music festivals and assaulting army positions. Some 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the attack and 251 were kidnapped to Gaza, triggering two years of war in the Strip.The IDF has not released figures on the number of strikes it has carried out in Gaza or the number of terror operatives it has killed since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025.According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 1,488 people were killed and 5,281 wounded by Israeli strikes and gunfire between the start of the ceasefire and October 11, 2026. The ministry’s figures, which previously counted over 70,000 killed during the active phase of the war, do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.Israel has expanded its control over the Strip during the ceasefire, from an initial 53% to around 63% currently. The IDF also now maintains some 40 military posts in the Israeli-held portion of Gaza.Gazans are not permitted to cross the boundary known as the Yellow Line into Israeli-controlled territory, and the IDF has previously said it opens fire on Gazans who attempt to cross it.The territory under Israeli control includes the entire eastern part of the Strip and the city of Rafah. Gaza’s roughly two million residents are now concentrated in western Gaza City, Khan Younis, the central Strip and al-Mawasi, an area southwest of Khan Younis where large tent camps were established early in the war and remain in place today.Nael said that despite the ongoing dangers, people leave their homes and go about their daily lives. “People have gotten used to death. They’ve gotten used to the bombardment.”Anas Arafat, a Gaza City resident, lives in a tent with his family and is looking for an apartment to rent.“In practice, there is no ceasefire,” he said. “The Palestinian side is the only one committed to the ceasefire, not the Israeli side,” he told The Times of Israel.That sentiment is also reflected in a recent survey of Gaza residents.A poll conducted by the East Jerusalem-based Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre, published in September 2026, found that 66% of respondents in Gaza believed the Palestinian leadership’s top priority should be ending the war in the Strip, reflecting the sense in Gaza that the war never halted. The survey did not specify which Palestinian leadership it was referring to.While Hamas has not fired rockets at Israel for over a year, Israeli security officials have recently warned that the terror group is rebuilding its military capabilities, including by recruiting new operatives, conducting training and restoring military infrastructure.Israel has insisted that troops will not pull back until Hamas disarms. It has also refused to allow the reconstruction of the Strip to move forward until the terror group gives up its weapons and cedes power, a central tenet of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan meant to be administered by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.Hamas out, technocrats not yet in-In conversations with Gaza residents, Hamas does not emerge as the first party they blame for the situation.Nael said he was “angry at the whole world.”“It’s been three years, and nobody has delivered anything. They set up a ‘Board of Peace,’ with [the Board’s High Representative for Gaza Nickolay] Mladenov and Trump — nothing came of it. Just statements and lies,” he said.While most Gazans see Israel as the main author of their woes, recent polls among Gaza residents have also shown a gradual, if slow, decline in support for Hamas.In the August 2026 survey conducted by PCPSR, 38% of Gaza respondents said they were satisfied with Hamas’s performance during the war against Israel, down from 51% in October 2025.In the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre survey, just 9.9% of Gaza respondents named Hamas when asked an open-ended question regarding which political party they believed in. The survey was the first to include Gazans, making a direct year-on-year comparison impossible.Nearly half of Gaza respondents — 49.3% — predicted separately that the Strip would come under the control of the international community “after the war.”The survey was conducted in August 2026, making it unclear what respondents understood by “after the war,” though they may have been referring to the near future under the existing ceasefire.Under the ceasefire agreement, administrative responsibility is meant to transfer to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. The body of nonpartisan Palestinian technocrats, known as NCAG, was established in January 2026 as part of Trump’s peace plan.But 10 months after its establishment, the committee’s members have yet to enter Gaza or assume actual governing authority, despite Hamas announcing in July that it was dissolving the governmental emergency committee that had administered the Strip on its behalf during the war and that it was willing to transfer its powers to the new body.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, meanwhile, has rejected a Board of Peace disarmament plan tentatively agreed to by Hamas, saying it does not go far enough in removing the terror group’s weapons.The result is that the Strip remains in a sort of limbo, with no government body to provide Gazan civilians with essential services and leaving it in a state that is little different from the years of war.“Hamas said it was ready to hand over power, but nobody is taking it, and there’s a vacuum. What would change the situation? Replacing the government, bringing in people [from the committee] who will put an end to this war,” Nael said.Residents who spoke to The Times of Israel argued that Hamas’s presence on the ground was relatively limited as compared to before the war, meaning that it was hard to blame the group for the fact that they were still living as if the war had never ended.“You see police officers when there’s a dispute between families,” Arafat said, but acknowledged that beyond such occasional appearances, they do not exercise control on the ground.Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas police officers have rarely been seen on Gaza’s streets, and those who have appeared have often been dressed in civilian clothing.Over the past year, the IDF has struck Hamas police stations and officers on several occasions.After one such strike on a Gaza City police station in August, the IDF alleged that “terrorists were operating from the civilian police station to advance terror attacks against IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip, exploiting it for military purposes in violation of international law.”Relying on aid-Arafat expressed hope that the arrival of NCAG would allow government ministries to resume operations and salaries to be paid to tens of thousands of employees of Hamas-run government institutions, including doctors, teachers, and staff at various ministries.According to Arafat, these employees have received salaries from Hamas only once every few months in recent years, amounting to roughly NIS 1,000 ($325) per payment. Over the past four months, he said, they have received no salaries at all.“If they receive salaries, the situation of most of these families will improve. They’ll at least be able to buy basic necessities. The committee’s arrival will help and solve a major problem because it is [financially] backed by the Board of Peace, by Trump, by the United States — the most powerful country in the world,” he said.Unemployment in the Strip, which has been elevated for years, spiked to nearly 80% during the war, according to official Palestinian figures, though a report in July forecast that it would fall to 73% in 2026, assuming that ceasefire conditions allowed aid and other supplies to flow into the Strip and bolster rehabilitation activities.Asked about conditions in the Strip, residents describe a daily struggle to survive — above all, finding enough money to feed their families.Arafat himself works for a humanitarian organization operating in Gaza. He estimated that 90% of the population relies on assistance to obtain food, whether through humanitarian organizations working in the Strip, money sent by relatives abroad, or support from family members and acquaintances within Gaza. Others sell whatever possessions they can.“People sell the tarpaulin sheets from their tents to buy food and milk for their children. Some families sell their kitchen utensils,” he said.Nael worked in the past as a journalist but did not elaborate on his current sources of income, saying only that he had exhausted the savings he had accumulated before the war.Ahmed worked for another humanitarian organization until about a week and a half ago, when he resigned after what he described as an incident at the organization for which he felt responsible. He is now looking for work with another aid group.While working for the humanitarian organization, Ahmed earned $2,000 a month — a relatively high salary in Gaza — but that income is now gone.“I hope I can find something. My daughter was born two months ago, and she needs food,” he said.He suggested that if conditions on the ground do not change, Gaza’s borders should be opened to allow residents to leave the Strip for better lives elsewhere.Even after the ceasefire, the process of leaving Gaza has remained largely unchanged from during the war. Only a small number of residents have been able to leave over the past year, following lengthy bureaucratic procedures, whether for medical reasons or because of ties to a third country.“In Ukraine, people were evacuated from war zones. At the very least, I’m saying: Open the borders so we can travel,” he said. “Anyone who has a son in Europe, a son in Egypt, a son in America — let them go to their son.”

Hamas-run ministry says 1,488 killed since deal-On ceasefire anniversary, US claims ‘real progress’ made in demilitarizing Gaza-Washington says building will be difficult but progress underway for Hamas-free rule and security for Israel; Kushner, Red Cross mark one year since return of living hostages By Lazar Berman, Nava Freiberg, Nurit Yohanan and Emanuel Fabian 13 October 2026, 10:59 pm

The United States on Tuesday claimed that “real progress” was being made toward a demilitarized Gaza Strip, on the one-year anniversary of the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit, which marked the start of the hostage release-ceasefire deal in the Gaza war.Since the onset of the truce crafted by the administration of US President Donald Trump, said the statement, “a series of remarkable achievements have built the foundations for a new Gaza: an enduring ceasefire, the return of every hostage both living and deceased, the establishment of the Board of Peace and a Palestinian technocratic administration to run Gaza, and a fully costed recovery plan.”The State Department claimed that Hamas’s theft of humanitarian aid has “dwindled.”“Rebuilding Gaza will be an arduous, multi-year process, and implementation will be difficult,” it continued. “But we are making real progress toward a demilitarized Gaza, where Palestinians can live without Hamas rule and Israel can have genuine and lasting security.”Top US envoy Jared Kushner and the International Committee of the Red Cross also marked the first anniversary of the release of the final 20 living hostages from Hamas captivity, recalling their emotional reunions with their families and the diplomatic efforts that made their return possible.“One year ago today, all 20 remaining living Israeli hostages finally came home after two years of unimaginable suffering in Gaza,” Kushner wrote on X, describing witnessing their return as “one of the most special moments of my life.”Kushner thanked Trump for his leadership and determination, alongside Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other top officials from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey who helped secure the October 2025 agreement.Separately, Julien Lerisson, head of the ICRC delegation in Israel, told The Times of Israel that the release of the hostages demonstrated the life-saving power of diplomacy.“Seeing them reunited with family members who had waited anxiously every day for this moment is something that will stay with me,” Lerisson said.He stressed that the ICRC repeatedly called for the unconditional release of all hostages throughout their captivity.The operation, he emphasized, would not have been possible “without the agreement between the parties and the significant efforts of the mediators.”“When political agreements are reached, lives can be saved,” Lerisson said. “There is no substitute for the political will to protect human life.”Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said that 1,488 people have been killed and 5,281 wounded by IDF strikes and gunfire in the Strip since the ceasefire took effect on October 11, 2025.The toll did not differentiate between combatants and civilians.The IDF had not released figures on the number of strikes carried out or the number of terror operatives killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the truce.Separately, Hamas confirmed that a member of the terror group who killed Border Police officer Staff Sgt. Barel Hadaria Shmueli during a riot on the Gaza border in August 2021 was killed during fighting in the Strip two years ago.On August 21, 2021, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip held a large demonstration along the Gaza border, near the defunct Karni Crossing. At one point during the demonstration, dozens of rioters rushed the border barrier, up to a hole in the concrete wall that was being used by Israeli snipers as a firing position.Hamas operative Muhammad Maher Abu Jasser approached the hole in the wall, stuck his pistol through it, and fired three times. One of these shots struck Shmueli in the head, critically wounding him. He died of his injury days later.During a ceasefire in January 2025, Palestinian media reported that the body of Abu Jasser was found following fighting between the terror group and the IDF in northern Gaza’s Jabalia.Hamas on Monday published an obituary video for Abu Jasser, saying that he was killed on December 6, 2024. The video showed Abu Jasser confirming he was the terrorist who killed Shmueli in 2021.The Israeli military and Shin Bet security agency have not commented.Additionally, the military announced on Tuesday that five terror operatives were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip in recent days.The IDF said that one strike on Sunday in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis killed three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as they gathered to plan attacks on troops.They were identified by the military as Muhammad Abu Hajjaj, an engineering operative, Yousef Abu Razak, a deputy squad commander, and Abdelhamid Jadallah, a rocket operative.A separate strike on Monday in southern Gaza killed Salah a-Din Iyad Abd al-Hamid and Izz a-Din Iyad Diab Barhoum, identified by the army as members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force in the terror group’s Rafah Brigade.The IDF said the five had been advancing attacks against troops and civilians and attempting to restore the capabilities of the two terror groups, “in systematic violation of the ceasefire.”According to the Gaza ministry, a total of 74,377 people have been killed in the Strip since the start of the war.The Israeli military believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every dead terror operative.The IDF says it killed over 24,000 combatants in Gaza during the war and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.The military justifies the strikes amid the ceasefire by claiming that the terror operatives had planned to carry out attacks on Israeli troops operating in the Strip.The US has asked Israel to respond only to imminent threats as it seeks to advance its Hamas disarmament plan, but Jerusalem has largely bucked those calls.

Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight denied landing in Israel, forced to turn around, due to Indonesian pilot-Despite new regulations in the wake of flydubai attack, list of crew members aboard flight was reportedly only sent to Israel after takeoff from Addis Ababa-By Lazar Berman and ToI Staff Today, 3:56 am-OCT 13,26

An Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight from Addis Ababa was forced to turn around midair overnight between Sunday and Monday, after Israel refused to let it land because the pilot is a citizen of Indonesia, according to Hebrew media reports.Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Indonesia.The incident came less than two weeks after an attack aboard a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, in which an Omani pilot stabbed his copilot in an attempt to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport, and was thwarted by the intervention of several passengers.In the wake of the incident, it was revealed that hundreds of crew members from enemy states have flown into Israel, in a major security risk.The list of crew members on the Ethiopian Airlines flight was only sent to Israel after takeoff, Channel 13 reported on Monday. According to the Ynet news site, the plane returned to Addis Ababa, dumping its fuel in the sea along the way, where the pilot was replaced with another who was cleared to land in Israel.Following the flydubai attack, the Transportation Ministry reportedly tightened rules for foreign airlines flying to Israel, barring crew members who hold citizenship in countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel from operating or traveling aboard Israel-bound flights.Pilots and other aircrew holding citizenship from countries including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Pakistan have reportedly been easily able to fly into Israel in recent years.In the wake of the flydubai incident, local media has reported that Israeli security bodies have been warning for years that the Transportation Ministry was not performing adequate security checks on foreign airlines and their crew members flying into Israel and inspecting Israeli flights operated by foreign carriers. The Transportation Ministry has responded that it doesn’t have the intelligence apparatus needed.Channel 12 news reported last week that a letter sent by the Transportation Ministry the day after the attack stated that aircraft operators must not let citizens of enemy countries pilot, crew, or even travel on flights to Israel.The letter reportedly warned the operators that the ministry will be conducting recurring assessments to ensure that they are implementing the necessary programs, measures, and procedures to address the threats and risks associated with flights to Israel, and noted that it will conduct “on-site audits.”It also stated, the TV network reported, that the operators are responsible for ensuring that no pilots or cockpit crew members on flights that enter Israel’s Flight Information Region, or even on board the aircraft, are citizens or dual nationals of a country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Hezbollah vows to compensate owners of Lebanese homes destroyed in war with Israel-Top Hezbollah official says Lebanese state failing in duties, insists it’s working to ‘serve our people’ after US claims money — if it exists — is stuck in Iran due to sanctions-By AP Today, 5:24 pm-OCT 13,26

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah will pay up to $14,000 in aid to families whose homes in Lebanon were destroyed or made uninhabitable during the war with Israel, the head of the group’s Executive Council said Tuesday.At a news conference, Ali Daamoush accused the Lebanese state of failing to carry out its duties to help the displaced.He said families that lost their homes in Beirut and its southern suburbs would receive $14,000 each, while those elsewhere in Lebanon would get $12,000. Each payment includes $8,000 for furniture, with the rest intended to cover rent.Daamoush did not say how many families would benefit or how much the payments would total. The money most likely came from Iran, which has supplied Hezbollah with billions of dollars and weapons over decades.The initiative appears aimed at bolstering support among the Iran-backed terror group and political party’s base and signaling defiance to the Lebanese government and the United States, which has sought to cut off Hezbollah’s funding.The press conference was the terror group’s first on such payments since its latest two wars with Israel, which killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes in Lebanon.Rescue workers use an excavator as they conduct a search operation at a destroyed house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Arab Salim village, southern Lebanon, September 6, 2026.In recent years, the United States has increased its sanctions on individuals and institutions that Washington says Hezbollah uses to funnel money into Lebanon. Flights from Iran to Lebanon have been banned for nearly two years as part of efforts to pressure the Iran-backed terror group.The latest war began when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in early March, two days after the US and Israel launched a war on Iran. Israel launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns along the border, before a US-brokered ceasefire paused the conflict in late June.About 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon at the height of the war. Most have returned home since the ceasefire, but more than 300,000 remain displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration.The Israeli military has said that it has killed more than 2,500 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since early March.Forty-one IDF soldiers and one Defense Ministry civilian contractor have been killed in southern Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah since hostilities escalated amid the Iran war, which began on February 28.Two civilians were also killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.A framework agreement signed by Lebanon, Israel and the United States in Washington on June 26 commits Lebanon and the US to preventing reconstruction funds from reaching entities or individuals affiliated with non-state armed groups and taking available legal measures to prohibit their activities.Under the agreement, Israeli forces were to gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon and hand over control to the Lebanese army, while Hezbollah was to be disarmed, but implementation has stalled.Hezbollah has rejected the agreements reached earlier this year after rare direct talks in Washington and Rome between Lebanon and Israel, which officially still remain in a state of war.US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told Lebanon’s This is Beirut news outlet last week that the money that Hezbollah is promising does not exist. If the money were in Iran, he added, “it wouldn’t be able to be delivered to Hezbollah because of our efforts to cut off the Iranian regime from their terrorist proxies.”Asked about those remarks, Daamoush said: “We are not concerned about what the American administration says.” He added: “We are working to serve our people and will do all we can to give them shelter so that they go back to their normal life.”Hezbollah will set up centers so that people can visit to review their cases and receive compensation, he said.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

In first, Israel returns artifacts to Greece amid push to secure return of antiquities-Israel hands over 22 recovered ancient objects that were apparently illegally taken, with both countries hailing increasingly close cooperation in a range of spheres By THANASSIS STAVRAKIS and Derek Gatopoulos 13 October 2026, 9:08 pm

ATHENS (AP) — Israel returned 22 ancient artifacts on Tuesday that had been illegally removed from Greece, as Athens steps up an international repatriation campaign ultimately aimed at securing the return of sculptures taken from the Acropolis.Culture Minister Lina Mendoni received the objects from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Amir Ganor, director of its theft prevention division, at a ceremony held at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.“It is the first time that Israel has returned antiquities to Greece, marking the starting point of closer cooperation between the two countries for the protection of cultural heritage,” Mendoni said. “Every return of a cultural object to its place of origin has a broader symbolic and moral dimension.”The collection includes a small bronze statuette of a woman and pottery comprising slender oil flasks, two-handled amphorae and drinking cups decorated with mythological scenes and geometric motifs. The objects are provisionally dated to between about 700 B.C. and 320 B.C.Athens is broadening bilateral cultural ties as part of its campaign to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles. The 2,500-year-old sculptures were removed from the Acropolis and are now displayed at the British Museum in London.Greece, under its current conservative government, and Israel have strengthened energy and defense ties in recent years. In August, Israel signed a €3 billion (about $3.5 billion) deal to build an air defense system in Greece, dubbed “Achilles Shield,” in what was described as the largest defense deal between the two countries.Greek and Israeli officials on Tuesday did not disclose how the artifacts were discovered in Israel or the circumstances of their illegal removal from Greece. In previous cases, antiquities returned from private collections abroad have often been traced to illicit excavations.Pninat Yanay, the Israeli ambassador to Greece, said the items were recovered during an “investigation by the Israeli authorities into the illegal antiquities trade.”“In both Greece and Israel, archaeology has a special place in national life,” Yanay added. “It helps us understand where we came from and who we are.”

W3C’s Verifiable Credential Barcodes add real-time revocation for physical IDs-Consortium says physical credentials need stronger revocation controls as identity theft and document compromise risks grow-Oct 12, 2026, 1:02 am EDT | Joel R. McConvey

Identity fraud is no longer a fringe problem. Massive data breaches continue to demonstrate how identities and credentials are vulnerable, and to demand a solution that offers genuine protection. In the words of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), “the future of physical document security is being decided as we speak. Real-time revocation is needed to protect individuals against identity theft.”W3C is proposing one answer: Verifiable Credential Barcodes.A release from the consortium says that W3C Verifiable Credential Barcodes specification builds on the cryptographic credentials standardized in 2025 with W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0, enabling digital credentials to secure physical documents like driver’s licenses. Crucially, it offers real-time revocation – which W3C says is now a necessity, given the changing nature of the digital credential ecosystem and the demand for effective protections against fraud.“A stolen, high-resolution image of a barcode containing a valid digital signature will pass signature verification checks just like the original,” it says. Defense requires “a switch that an issuing organization can flip when a document has been compromised, that invalidates it instantly and causes all future verification attempts to fail.”In a breach involving exposed identity documents, revocation could allow issuers to invalidate affected credentials for future verification, reducing their usefulness for subsequent fraud.Real-time revocation through Bitstring Status List-W3C says its Bitstring Status List, a global web standard, “serves as such a status mechanism, granting credential issuers fine-grained, real-time, and per-credential control.” It does so without server retrieval or “phoning home” to the issuing authority, thereby preserving user privacy. This, W3C says, and its design in tandem with Verifiable Credential Barcodes, makes it “perfectly suited for use cases requiring immediate, real-time revocation.”Per the release, the W3C Verifiable Credential Barcodes technology is open, public, royalty-free, and fully available to “any credential-issuing organization looking to protect its users against identity fraud.” The organization says it has been tested with “rigorous threat modeling,”  and that it “inherits the strengths of the mature W3C Verifiable Credentials ecosystem, including the Bitstring Status List mechanism.”Production testing has already commenced, with the California Department of Motor Vehicles issuing new driver’s licenses and identification cards with a W3C Verifiable Credential Barcode since late last year.The organization says it wants to “make sure that government organizations and policymakers know that there is a free and open solution to this problem that is being designed for the public good.”

Border biometrics move toward better gates, or none at all-Walk-through biometrics, mobile pre-registration and profiling tools are reshaping border control as DPI programs push beyond enrollment-Oct 10, 2026, 7:00 am EDT | Chris Burt

The biometric technology needed for a new kind of border control is here. Travelers can already move through airports and some land-border checkpoints without breaking stride, while mobile pre-registration is pushing identity checks further upstream. The use case still has room to grow, but longstanding concerns about surveillance and overreach remain just as relevant.Several notable numbers in digital public infrastructure also made headlines on Biometric Update this week.Pace picks up for walk-through biometric borders-U.S. CBP has begun testing walk-through facial recognition technology from NEC, Paravision and AiFi at a land border crossing in Texas. Pedestrian crossings are one of the biggest remaining gaps in America’s biometric Entry-Exit System, but Congress has allocated billions to bring the technology to production.CBP has reached a billion travelers’ face biometrics screened since it began standing up its EES in the aftermath of 9/11.Janice Kephart joins the Biometric Update Podcast this week to talk about how the events reshaped travel policy around biometrics and the gaps remaining in the system 25 years later.Idemia Public Security has its own face biometric corridor technology, which matches the face biometrics of multiple subjects at once, and took the occasion of the first-ever PTE Asia to announce it will bring the solution to the APAC region. PaXpress SmartLanes are already being trialed in the region.UK airports are getting updated e-gates that will allow travelers to use face biometrics for border checks when they return to the country without showing their passports. In India, facial recognition checks for airline and airport staff will be required to increase aviation security in the aftermath of the latest terrorism incident.With passenger checks shifting to include pre-registration on mobile apps, the new version of DHS’ Remote Identity Validation Rally has implications for border control as well. RIVR-2 adds international passports to the state-issued ID cards used in the previous version, as well.Data collected by agents with DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations as they observe arrests by ICE, including facial recognition results, is being fed through Palantir software to border agents. Border agents can then apply enhanced screening to those HSI agents believe pose operational or safety concerns.This arrangement is part of the context of the IBIA’s call for Congress to expand biometric screening at land borders while also imposing enforceable limitations on profiling. The House Intelligence Committee’s recommendation that CBP build traveler profiles needs clear restrictions if it is to offer more than what license plate recognition systems currently do without replicating the surveillance systems used by authoritarian governments.Even physical travel IDs are changing, with ECOWAS running public awareness campaigns ahead of a December mutual recognition target for its ENBIC biometric ID cards for cross-border travel within the region.DPI beyond the numbers-On the heels of his recognition among the “DPI 50,” Tariq Malik argues in an interview with Biometric Update for more customized approaches to building digital public infrastructure in Africa. Exit tests for partnerships are in; registration pilots, at least in cases like Malawi, are out.And DPI projects are roaring ahead around the world.Indonesia is planning a tender for “level 2” PAD to use in remote biometric onboarding for its national digital ID, and is seeking industry input.South Africa’s first digital ID was issued last week. Afghanistan has issued more than 18 million electronic ID cards, but also has a problem with undocumented returnees and IDPs.India is gearing up for DPI 2.0, which ONDC CEO T. Koshy breaks down in an interview with Biometric Update.Please let us know if you happen across any podcasts, panels or other content you think we should share with the people in biometrics and the digital identity community, either in the comments below or through social media.

New World Bank funding to support Rwanda’s digital ID rollout, CRVS digitization-Additional $19M will support biometric enrollment, civil registration digitization and wider digital government infrastructure-Oct 12, 2026, 11:05 am EDT | Ayang Macdonald

Rwandan lawmakers have approved about $19 million in additional World Bank financing to support the national digital ID rollout and digitization of the country’s civil registration and vital statistics system.Local daily The New Times reports that legislators recently approved a bill to ratify the loan agreement signed in Kigali on July 11 between the Rwandan government and the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA).The State Minister for National Treasury, Godfrey Kabera, told the members of parliament that the additional funds would fill a financing gap caused by an earlier reduction in project funding. In 2024, the government repurposed about $20 million from IDA funding to support other operations, under an agreement with the World Bank.Kabera said the money would help fund components of the ongoing Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project (RDAP), including the continued rollout of the single digital ID system, strengthening cybersecurity, expanding affordable internet access and improving access to digital equipment. The resources will also be channeled into improving government services, developing technology skills, supporting innovation, building data hubs, and upgrading digital systems for public safety and emergency response.Kabera said the digital ID rollout and CRVS digitization components are 76 percent and 89 percent complete, respectively.For the past several months, Rwanda has been conducting biometric enrollment in preparation for the new digital ID system which the government says aims to streamline access to public and private sector services.On October 4, the National Identification Agency (NIDA) said the nationwide exercise had covered all districts, with about 13.7 million individuals biometrically enrolled. Those not reached are expected to have their biometric capture at their respective sector offices when the exercise resumes.Rwanda has also advanced CRVS reform, expanding legal identity coverage and access to services.As part of the additional financing, RDAP’s closing date has been extended to June 30, 2028. Launched in 2021, the project had an initial funding allocation of $200 million, with $100 million each from the World Bank’s IDA and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).The project has already introduced or upgraded 258 online public services, exceeding its initial target. However, the Government Data Hub remains unfinished after the initial procurement process had to be restarted because the bids were deemed insufficient in quality. Procurement for data-security activities was also ongoing, contributing to the need for more time to complete the project.Rwanda’s ongoing efforts highlight the growing interdependence of digital ID, government data infrastructure and cybersecurity within its national digital transformation program. The country is working to connect these components to improve public service delivery and support the growth of its digital economy.

ASEAN moves toward interoperable digital identity with verifiable credentials-Christopher Goh says Thailand is emerging as a regional frontrunner as ASEAN governments work toward common trust rails for cross-border credentials-Oct 12, 2026, 1:07 am EDT | Lu-Hai Liang

The 11 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are among the world’s most active adopters of digital identity. Even its newest member, Timor-Leste, has a national digital identity system, though its capabilities remain limited.Southeast Asian nations are now accelerating efforts to link those systems as they move toward verifiable credentials that can scale across borders and industries. Biometric Update spoke with Christopher Goh, founder of Valid8 Advisory and an international consultant with extensive experience in digital identity and verifiable credentials across APAC.The next stage is interoperability: creating common “rails” that allow credentials to be trusted and reused across countries.Thailand tests the interoperability modelAccording to Goh, Thailand has emerged as a frontrunner. A recent event was held in Bangkok in conjunction with the World Bank, with representatives of the European Commission, “three European countries,” Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. also in attendance, Goh tells Biometric Update.“They’re ready to do commerce in a good way,” Goh says. “They’re also doing lots of work in post-quantum readiness, and because particularly Southeast Asia has a lot of what we call mobile farms and fraud coming out of that region, it’s really critical for them.”Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) has adopted open credential standards, enacted supporting legislation and built a strong PKI infrastructure. According to Goh, Thailand’s PKI infrastructure is “one of the best in ASEAN.”Meanwhile, ASEAN members including the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia operate single sign‑on platforms but are beginning to explore verifiable credential infrastructure. Practicalities like reducing friction in cross‑border trade, enabling secure eKYC in banking, and meeting AML/CFT compliance requirements are driving this.From identity to eligibility-Unlike traditional single sign‑on systems, which rely on government‑controlled APIs, verifiable credentials enable decentralized trust. Citizens can store credentials in digital wallets, share only the necessary information, and authenticate offline. This model also allows private‑sector participation.“I think it’s a really good convergence of similar drivers in relation to economic reform,” Goh says. “The pressure cooker of the world outside has actually made them come together more substantively, because they are stronger together.”Verifiable credentials also promise benefits for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which form the backbone of ASEAN economies, Goh argues. By allowing different assurance levels depending on the transaction, they lower barriers for small loans, remittances and local commerce.Decentralized trust can also support sensitive sectors such as healthcare, where patients can control access to personal records, and emerging use cases such as agentic AI, where delegated authority requires distributed identity frameworks.ASEAN’s work is developing alongside similar interoperability efforts elsewhere. Sixteen European countries, 28 U.S. states, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are piloting the same open standards, notably OpenID and mdoc. At the recent Bangkok event, ASEAN governments worked with the World Bank to draft a cross‑border roadmap for interoperability.Goh says demonstrations showed credentials issued in one country could be verified in another within minutes using shared trust lists and open APIs, helping policymakers and engineers see how quickly interoperability can be put into practice. When officials, engineers and stakeholders are shown the possibilities, ideas and innovation can spark very quickly, the Australia-based international adviser explains.Trust frameworks remain the hard part-The challenge now lies in aligning trust frameworks and assurance levels across jurisdictions. Countries must reconcile differences in identity proofing, authentication and binding standards. Resilience against spoofing and AI‑driven fraud meanwhile is an urgent consideration.As ASEAN moves from identity to eligibility, meaning that verifying not just who someone is but what they are entitled to, the adoption of VCs will translate to significant developments in digital government services and regional economic integration.It is not an easy process, however. “Often there is friction between agencies because health and education usually have the big budgets, while digital does not have much money,” according to Goh. And here, it should be noted that many economies in ASEAN are emerging ones. Goh sees Thailand’s public-private model as particularly promising and praises ETDA’s approach.“Thailand has allowed the private sector to participate in a trustworthy way,” Goh says. “It is still growing and finding its legs, but it is really going. Banks and providers such as Grab are stepping up their assurance processes to meet certain obligations.”“I’m seeing good signs around private-private partnership, which is very hard to achieve because businesses want services with minimum red tape, while government wants risk-based controls.Thailand seems to have got that balance right. Thailand and Singapore are very good with government services, but government soon becomes the bottleneck. If they want to achieve whole-of-economic reform, not just government services, the private sector has to play. That’s why I think the dark horse is Thailand.”Goh highlighted that one of the biggest hurdles to progress is the persistence of proprietary systems. Vendors continue to push closed solutions, and governments often adopt them without realizing that open standards exist. At the event in Bangkok, more than half of the participating countries admitted they were unaware of these open technologies, Goh claims.Yet once introduced, they were able to build their own credential within a day, and cross‑country wallet interoperability tests could be run almost immediately. This, he said, demonstrates the power of adopting common standards and open‑source tools, which allow engineers to deliver pilots for policymakers in a matter of weeks.These frameworks must reconcile different assurance levels, identity proofing methods and authentication controls. International standards such as NIST SP‑800‑63 provide guidance, but countries must still align their models closely enough to support mutual recognition.This is particularly important for financial services where AML, CFT, eKYC and customer due diligence requirements each carry distinct trust levels. Achieving equivalence across these domains is essential for governments and private industry to operate securely and seamlessly.Open standards meet economic use cases-Remittances illustrate the potential economic value of interoperable credentials. Workers sending money home could use VCs to prove identity and transact through common wallets, potentially reducing costs where AML or CFT requirements otherwise push users toward more expensive services.For small and micro businesses, credentials allow people to verify identity through their relationships without putting government in the middle, Goh argues. “Otherwise government becomes the bottleneck for innovation and trust, and organizations must wait for APIs,” he continues.“With device-to-device trust and biometric matching, businesses can verify one another in local marketplaces, reduce fraud, confirm that wholesalers are legitimate, track delivery, and move payments in real time.”

The country is also leveraging partnership opportunities with countries such as Jordan and Gabon, to share notes on digital public infrastructure implementation.

AI models may soon be able to self-replicate across smart-home devices, Anthropic warns-Tech firm says malicious AI agent could use computing power of internet-linked home devices to run other AI models, as developers continue to warn about dangers of AI-By Reuters Today, 8:23 pm-OCT 13,26

Anthropic said on Monday that small AI models could be months away from self-replicating across internet-connected devices, raising the possibility of AI botnets spreading quickly, fighting takedown attempts, and even breaking into data centers to turbocharge their growth.Last month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei first floated the idea that within the next year or even sooner, AI might be able to hijack “the entire internet” with “a persistent botnet,” a warning that raised eyebrows in the cybersecurity community.Botnets — vast networks of devices controlled by malicious operators — have been around since the early days of the internet, and are still around.The network typically includes poorly secured Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as Android TV boxes, smart appliances and security cameras, and is used by hackers to send spam, seed malware, or sabotage target companies using floods of bogus traffic.Anthropic’s Monday blog post appeared to be the first attempt to articulate how that might happen.The company said that its experiments showed that a malicious AI agent could stitch together the computing power of inexpensive internet-connected devices to run other AI models. It added that the models were able to replicate across a simplified test network.“A replicator like this would be challenging to shut down, since there’s no centralized point to shut off,” the company said.The report adds to broader concerns about the security risks tied to increasingly capable AI systems, including their potential to automate cyberattacks, operate with limited human oversight, and circumvent safeguards.The advances in models have prompted a series of often dire warnings from industry heads and AI company employees about the possibility of severe, even existential, risks of runaway AI development.Anthropic said its experiments showed that models with 30 billion parameters or fewer can already perform many of the individual tasks required for self-replication, although they struggle to complete the entire process reliably.In its simplified tests, where some security steps were removed, Anthropic found that GLM-5.2 and stronger models were capable of end-to-end replication.Anthropic said that if smaller models continue improving at their historical rate, they could reach the capability required for autonomous replication by the end of 2026.An AI worm running on low-powered hardware could take days to complete parts of the replication process, Anthropic said. It added that such a network could continue growing, slower than some conventional malware, if compromised devices infected enough additional machines.Anthropic also warned that future systems could target more powerful computing resources, including data-center processors, although its experiments did not demonstrate autonomous replication through commercial data centers.

MIMOS expands digital trust and AI security efforts under Malaysia’s sovereign AI agenda-Deepfake detection, digital identity and cybersecurity support Malaysia’s push for sovereign AI-Oct 13, 2026, 2:43 pm EDT | Lu-Hai Liang

Malaysia’s MIMOS Berhad is developing technologies to strengthen digital trust as part of the country’s sovereign AI agenda.The national applied research and development center is working on deepfake detection, blockchain-secured trusted logs, AI-driven cybersecurity solutions and trusted digital identity systems. “MIMOS is addressing deepfakes from both the defensive and research perspectives,” said MIMOS Group Chief Technology Officer Dr Zulaikha Kadim.According to MIMOS, theses are being developed through its Trusted Intelligence Platform, which is designed to support the testing and validation of technologies aligned with national priorities. The platform focuses on ensuring that data, AI systems and digital content can be verified and trusted in operational environments.The organization believes AI sovereignty should extend beyond ownership of computing infrastructure, Kadim said. Instead, it includes control over data, AI models, security requirements and critical technological capabilities needed to develop and deploy AI systems independently.Under the 13th Malaysia Plan (RMK13), MIMOS will advance several projects in digital trust and AI assurance. These include blockchain-secured trusted logs, deepfake detection technologies and AI-driven cybersecurity tools. The organization is also developing Mi-Muallim, a system designed to identify deviations in verified content and works with local languages.MIMOS is also working on cognitive AI and technologies related to computer vision and robotics. The research forms part of broader efforts to strengthen Malaysia’s domestic capabilities in AI development and deployment.Malaysia’s Digital Ministry is strengthening its AI training programmes to address emerging risks such as deepfakes, voice cloning, fake videos and AI-enabled scams. Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said AI Malaysia Bhd is leading efforts through initiatives such as AI Safe, which assesses AI security risks and develops safeguards.Updated training modules contain guidance on AI-related threats and prevention measures for civil servants and the public, and are incorporated into programmes such as the Executive Digital Leadership Programme (EDLP) and public sector adoption of Gemini Workspace.Gobind also said AI Malaysia Bhd is coordinating with government, industry and academia to identify AI talent needs, evaluate existing training programmes and address skills gaps through new learning modules. The ministry is currently establishing a structure to support AI Malaysia Bhd’s role in expanding AI talent development nationwide.

OneSpan expands e-signature roadmap with identity verification, AI and digital wallets-Document validation, biometric identity checks and AI agents bring new capabilities to digital agreement workflows-Oct 13, 2026, 11:14 am EDT | Abhishek Jadhav

OneSpan is expanding its electronic signature platform with document validation, digital identity wallets and AI-assisted workflows, building on existing biometric identity verification capabilities to bring more of the agreement process into OneSpan Sign.The roadmap builds on existing government ID checks, facial biometric matching and liveness detection, adding tools to assess supporting documents, automate agreement preparation and connect authorized AI agents to workflows.For financial institutions, the aim is to bring loan and account-opening agreements, signer identity verification and supporting document checks into a more integrated workflow.The expansion addresses delays caused by missing fields, unsuitable supporting documents and manual transfers between systems, according to OneSpan.The planned tools will identify those problems earlier and move completed agreements into the next business process with fewer handoffs.When identity verification is enabled, signers must complete the process before accessing an agreement.The process checks a government-issued identity document, compares the person’s live facial biometric capture with the portrait on the document, and uses video liveness detection to assess whether the capture is from someone physically present.OneSpan is testing additional checks for supporting documents submitted with an agreement.NIGO Document Validation examines attachments such as identity documents, bank statements, utility bills and pay stubs.It classifies the document and can evaluate image quality, required information, completeness, and expiration. The feature assesses if an uploaded document is suitable for the requested agreement process.OneSpan’s 26.R5 release notes describe NIGO Document Validation as an early-access capability available in the company’s sandbox environment.The company also plans to add AI tools for preparing and reviewing agreements.Automated field placement would identify where signature and data fields belong in a document. OneSpan says the proposed fields will remain subject to human review.OneSpan plans to support digital credentials and wallets as another way to authenticate a signer’s identity.The company is already participating in the WE BUILD and Aptitude European Digital Identity Wallet pilots.OneSpan separately plans to add Model Context Protocol support so authorized AI agents can interact with agreement workflows and data.

OCR Studio, FinOn explore linking identity checks with payment authentication-Proposed integration combines on-device identity verification and card scanning with 3-D Secure payment authentication.Oct 13, 2026, 10:44 am EDT | Abhishek Jadhav

OCR Studio and FinOn are considering a combined workflow to connect customer onboarding with authentication for online card payments.OCR Studio will provide locally processed identity document verification and payment card scanning, while FinOn contributes its 3-D Secure technology used by merchants and payment service providers.The proposed workflow covers identity checks, card data entry, and payment authentication.“Our partnership with OCR Studio brings complementary expertise in document verification and payment authentication to that challenge,” says Alexander Morsakov, chief commercial officer at FinOn.The process starts with OCR ID-verify, extracting data from an identity document and examining it for signs of alteration. It compares information in the visual inspection zone with the machine-readable zone, barcodes, and NFC chip.OCR BANK-scan performs a narrower function at checkout, where it reads the card number, expiry date, cardholder name, and other supported fields.Both functions perform recognition in a browser, on the user’s device, or within the business’s infrastructure, which ensures privacy and data security.Since the document or card image does not need to be sent to OCR Studio for processing, the model follows the recent zero-trust KYC framework. The framework calls for limiting transfers of identity documents, selfies, and extracted information.But simply capturing card information does not establish that the person entering it owns the account or is authorized to make the payment.FinOn’s 3DS Server allows a merchant, payment gateway, payment service provider, or acquirer to initiate a 3-D Secure request and send transaction information toward the card issuer.FinOn’s Access Control Server operates on the issuing side, where it evaluates information about the transaction, payment method, and device against the issuer’s rules.Keeping card recognition on the device reduces the number of external services that receive the underlying image, but it does not remove the payment application from the card data security framework.The PCI Data Security Standard applies to entities and systems that store, process, or transmit payment card information, including the primary account number.

ICE seeks voice biometrics to identify detainees, outside callers in AI surveillance system-Proposed platform would use voice biometrics, video surveillance and linked records to reconstruct movements, conversations and associations-Oct 13, 2026, 3:49 pm EDT | Anthony Kimery

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking technology to turn recorded detainee calls and live surveillance video into a searchable intelligence network capable of identifying speakers by their voices, tracking movements, and mapping relationships across detention facilities.The proposed AI system would build voice profiles without subjects’ cooperation, analyze conversations and behavior, and automatically connect findings to investigative records to reconstruct individuals’ activities and associations.The system would also analyze detainees’ behavior through continuous video surveillance, identify associations among individuals, detect potentially suspicious conversations, and automatically correlate information from otherwise separate detention and law enforcement systems to build investigative timelines and evidence packages.The proposed capability also could extend beyond people in ICE custody.The unusually detailed requirements are contained in a 73-page Performance Work Statement accompanying a Request for Information (RFI) that ICE published last week.The agency is seeking industry capabilities for what it calls an Integrated Intelligence Suite, designed for deployment across detention facilities operated by ICE, private contractors, and government partners.Among its most consequential requirements is the ability to create biometric voice profiles from existing recordings without a separate enrollment session, subject cooperation, or new recording equipment.Investigators could then search for potential matches regardless of the telephone number, account, personal identification number (PIN), or device used.Where available audio and government authorization permit, the system would compare the voice of someone receiving a detainee’s call against a profile associated with the dialed number, potentially revealing call forwarding or other arrangements that obscure who is participating in a onversation.Investigators could also submit an approved recording obtained from another source, such as an interview or investigative tip, and search the authorized detention communications database for matching speakers.Where separately authorized, the system would support matching voices across participating agencies.The proposed system would not be limited to identifying speakers. ICE wants to combine potential voice matches with video footage, detainee-management records, housing assignments, movement histories, and incident reports, allowing investigators to identify relationships and reconstruct activity across multiple facilities.The procurement remains at the market research stage. ICE has not identified a selected contractor, contract value, deployment schedule, or the number of facilities that would ultimately use the system.Vendor responses are due October 26.A single system for reconstructing activity and associations-Perhaps the most far-reaching element of the proposal is its requirement for automated correlation across different kinds of records.The system would extract and link names, aliases, telephone numbers, organizations, locations, communications, video events, and investigative information. ICE wants those connections represented as searchable relationships and timelines, with the evidence supporting each asserted connection available to investigators.The agency’s mandatory acceptance test illustrates what it expects.Starting with a flagged detainee communication, the system must present the recording, transcript, translation (when applicable), potential speakers, and any discrepancies in accounts. It must then retrieve relevant detainee records, identify related video events, and display connections among the people, locations, and events involved.The investigator could assemble a case record and export an evidence package containing supporting audio, video, metadata, relationships, and an audit trail without manually moving information between unrelated applications.This would move ICE beyond analyzing individual telephone conversations or reviewing surveillance video after an incident. It would provide a common investigative environment where information from one source could automatically trigger searches across several others.The proposed communications analysis would also go beyond conventional keyword monitoring. ICE wants software that can interpret conversational context, detect coded language, recognize slang and evolving terminology, and identify unusual terms that emerge across monitored conversations.The system would generate summaries and could produce draft investigative or intelligence reports, with material statements linked to underlying sources and reviewed by authorized personnel before consequential use.Existing ICE privacy documentation shows that investigative data systems already incorporate detainee telephone information.A 2021 update to the Privacy Impact Assessment for ICE’s RAVEn analytics program describes data received from the Detainee Telephone Services program. The privacy documentation shows detainee telephone metadata was already being incorporated into investigative data systems years before the latest proposal.The new procurement would permit optional enrichment of outside-party identities using public or proprietary information and optional autonomous, multistep analytical assistance.Neither is a minimum requirement, and ICE says both would need separate authorization.Voice biometrics could identify people outside detention-The voice identification requirements are especially expansive because they contemplate building biometric profiles from existing recordings, rather than relying on a person to enroll voluntarily or speak a prescribed phrase.The system would identify potential account sharing by comparing a speaker’s voice with the account holder’s profile. It would also flag possible three-way calls, additional speakers, in-room coaching, and other forms of third-party participation.ICE further requires the ability to recognize the same potential speaker across facilities, accounts, telephone numbers, devices, and historical recordings.Each potential match would include a confidence or similarity indication and access to supporting audio, with human confirmation required. ICE specifies that matches must be treated as investigative leads rather than conclusive identifications.Although the capabilities would be new to the integrated platform ICE is seeking, correctional voice surveillance itself is not new.ICE has employed voice biometrics in its Alternatives to Detention program. A 2023 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) privacy assessment describes voice verification for participant check-ins using a previously enrolled voiceprint. That program limits the stored voiceprint to confirming the participant’s identity during check-in.The new detention procurement contemplates using existing recordings to develop searchable voice profiles and link possible identities to investigative records.The documents do not specify how long outside callers’ biometric profiles would be retained, whether they could remain searchable after a detainee’s release, or the circumstances under which those profiles might be shared with another agency.Cameras would become continuous analytical sensors-The other major component would turn existing detention facility cameras into sources of continuously analyzed intelligence rather than relying exclusively on human observation or retrospective review.ICE wants software that can analyze approved live camera feeds and search recorded footage simultaneously, identifying fights, falls, crowd formation, coordinated group movements, restricted area entry, unusual congregation, and other activity defined by facility administrators.The requirements also include identifying prolonged immobility, isolation or withdrawal, and potential indications of distress, coercion, or self-harm. ICE describes these as safety and wellness functions intended to alert trained staff, not replace medical assessment or established response procedures.The same technology, however, would support analysis of interactions and associations between people, including who met, where they interacted, and how patterns changed over time.ICE also seeks automated detainee headcounts, using camera observations to compare the number of people in a location against authoritative housing and movement records.Discrepancies could trigger additional video searches and alerts for potentially missing detainees.The software would operate over existing camera and video management infrastructure, avoiding wholesale replacement of recording systems.Voice identification is a mandatory component of the proposed suite.The specifications require vendors to measure false matches, missed matches, alert accuracy, and performance under varying recording conditions. ICE has not yet established the final acceptance thresholds; testing with representative data will determine them.Facial recognition and video-based biometric identification are not mandatory elements of the proposed system. ICE says those capabilities would require separate legal, privacy, civil rights, and operational approval before activation. Voice identification, however, is required.The specifications require excluding protected communications, including privileged legal calls, from ordinary transcription, biometric matching, and analytical workflows.They also prohibit using AI-generated findings as the sole basis for punitive, enforcement, custody, disciplinary, medical, legal, or release decisions. ICE requires human review of consequential findings.

Intercede brings passkeys to Windows, applications and VPNs-Platform extends passkey sign-in across Windows, enterprise applications and VPNs, with support for on-premises and cloud deployments-Oct 13, 2026, 10:02 am EDT | Abhishek Jadhav

Intercede has introduced MyID Authenticate 2026.1 as a standalone platform for using passkeys across enterprise systems.The software can issue passkeys and validate them during authentication. It supports FIDO2 hardware security keys as well as device-bound and synced passkeys.MyID Authenticate brings passkey sign-in to Windows 10 and 11, where users can access a workstation even when it cannot reach the authentication server.The same authentication service can be connected to web, cloud, and on-premises applications through SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect.RADIUS provides access to compatible VPNs and network equipment.Organizations can run the platform on their own servers, in a public or private cloud, or through a hybrid deployment.Intercede already offered many of these functions through MyID MFA. MyID MFA 5.0 was introduced in 2024 as a passkey issuer and FIDO authentication server.The main change is the architecture, where MyID Authenticate does not require a particular directory, stores user information in its own database, and can be deployed across on-premises and cloud environments.Intercede provides a migration tool for MyID MFA customers.Biometrics can be used to authorize a passkey without becoming part of the server-side authentication system.For example, a fingerprint or facial check may unlock a passkey. The comparison takes place within the device, which sends MyID Authenticate a cryptographic assertion.MyID Authenticate also supports mobile push authentication with biometrics, as well as TOTP, one-time codes, and hardware tokens.The company describes MyID Authenticate as crypto-agile and designed to support post-quantum cryptography.But the company does not identify a post-quantum algorithm protecting passkeys issued or authenticated through the platform.Intercede and Swissbit are separately developing a post-quantum FIDO2 offering.The company says an unnamed European public-sector digital services organization is its lead customer.The company also reports signing a new customer in Germany for a combined deployment of MyID Authenticate and its MyID CMS credential-management system.MyID Authenticate is available now.

The 3DS Server has EMVCo approval for protocol versions 2.2.0 and 2.3.1. The approval is listed through May 28, 2027 and confirms conformance with the tested EMV 3-D Secure specifications.

Land crossings remain the missing link in US biometric border system-Twenty-five years after 9/11, biometric entry-exit at land borders remains incomplete, with vehicle screening and privacy safeguards posing challenges-Oct 13, 2026, 3:24 pm EDT | Joel R. McConvey

Twenty-five years after 9/11, the U.S. biometric border is still a work in progress. While biometrics have become routine at huge scale, tallying more than 1 billion face checks, land-border entry-exit remains an unfinished piece, and an ongoing challenge.In a recent interview with the Biometric Update Podcast, Janice Kephart, who authored the foundational 9/11 Commission Report and Terrorist Travel Guidelines, says that the main challenge remaining is vehicular, but that pedestrian exits are also still incomplete.Customs and Border Protection (CBP), she says, is still testing pedestrian biometric exit, and has deployed biometrics for pedestrians at several key crossings. But “they’re not nearly as far as they need to be on vehicular.” Not that she’s blaming them: “it’s very understandable,” she says. “There’s never been any infrastructure for that,” and while the technology is getting better, “multiple people in a vehicle is a very difficult problem to solve on many levels.”That said, CBP is committed to solving it. This past September marked the federal deadline for biometric exit implementation. While it remains incomplete, the system has evolved to cover several key land crossings, and to reflect CBP’s aggressive push to collect biometrics and build profiles on foreign nationals leaving by land.Simplified Arrival achieves technical match rate of 99%Biometric border crossings are sold as fast and accurate, a system for reducing the irritant of friction and the hassle of handling documents. An article in The Travel, reporting on U.S. land crossings where CBP’s facial biometric lanes are already live, says the transition to biometrics “represents a major modernization effort aimed at balancing national security with the need for efficient movement across some of the busiest ports of entry in the world.”The piece cites official data from 113 of the 165 land ports of entry that currently utilize the Simplified Arrival face biometrics system. “The system has achieved a technical match rate of over 99 percent,” it says, ensuring that “most pedestrians and vehicle occupants can proceed through inspections with minimal delay.”Simplified Arrival deployments featured in the Travel profile include southern crossings at Progreso International Bridge, the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry in California, the Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville, Texas, the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge in Laredo, and the Paso del Norte International Bridge connecting the downtown areas of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. Northern border crossings include the Peace Bridge in Buffalo and the Pacific Highway Port of entry in Blaine, Washington.Momentum across the biometrics spectrum turns to land borders-Recent developments at CBP, House Intelligence and within the industry show where policy is headed. A recent House Intelligence Committee review of the post-9/11 biometric architecture says the government still has not finished the job, concluding that “a comprehensive biometric entry-exit system remains one of the major unfinished pieces.”The International Biometrics and Identity Association (IBIA), meanwhile, wants Congress to expand biometric screening at U.S. land borders, fund comprehensive vehicle inspection systems, and impose enforceable restrictions on intelligence profiling.And, at the Progreso International Bridge, CBP is exploring the ultimate biometric verification solution for pedestrian crossings: a walk-through system that can capture people as they cross, without necessitating a stop. To make it happen, it has $3.45 billion appropriated to it through September 2029, under the Secure America Act.The evident takeaway is that the U.S. border control complex knows it has a land-crossing gap to plug – and, having spent 25 years laying foundations and implementing biometrics in air travel, it is now turning its attention to that gap. Reconfigured political relationships between the U.S. and its adjacent neighbours will also be a factor in shaping biometric infrastructure for land crossings.The transformation of airports began with a security crackdown and evolved into a system that enables a safer and more frictionless passenger journey. One might reasonably expect the story to play out similarly at land crossings: a first, hard imposition of biometric security fueled by immigration panic and political and economic tension, maturing – perhaps more quickly than happened with air – into a system that travelers prefer for its convenience.Potential misuse a ‘legitimate concern’Problematically, one might just as reasonably expect that the same forces animating cross-border hostilities will be able to do plenty of systemic damage as long as they are in charge. The House Intelligence Committee report includes a warning that the U.S. “must not replicate the surveillance architectures employed by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.” Rigorous oversight is necessary.Kephart believes that close scrutiny has forced CBP, DHS and other government agencies controlling the border to toe the line. “DHS has come under so much fire from privacy groups over the years that, even if this administration doesn’t care about the due diligence and the privacy and everything else, these programs have been built around implementing them in such a way that they are scoped properly for what they’re supposed to do,” she says.Nonetheless, she concedes that the current moment concerns her. “Having helped build the governance around use of biometrics by government, when you have this cowboy mentality of doing whatever needs to be done to go after who they’ve defined as the bad guy, that’s where you have the opportunity for misuse.”The next few years, then, will be a test of how strong those governance mechanisms actually are when faced with the pressures of creeping authoritarianism, political and economic tension between neighbours, and operational stress, as the U.S. moves to put the last of its biometric border controls in place.The Biometric Update Podcast is running a special series, After September, to explore how travel policy has evolved in the 25 years since 9/11. Watch your feed or check Podbean for forthcoming episodes covering the legal, technical and operational aspects of the issue.

Digital public infrastructure reshaping state-citizen relations in Africa, report warns-Study warns that expanding digital ID and public service systems could deepen exclusion without stronger governance and human rights safeguards-Oct 13, 2026, 3:13 pm EDT | Lu-Hai Liang

A new report from CIPESA (Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa) finds that the expansion of digital public infrastructure (DPI) systems across 11 African countries could have significant implications for human rights, democratic governance and civic participation.The State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2026 report examines DPI developments in Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Governments across the continent are investing heavily in digital identity, payment and data-sharing systems to modernize public services and drive digital transformation.But the report argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the governance and human rights implications of these systems. It calls for stronger rights-respecting frameworks before DPI becomes further entrenched in public administration and everyday life.“Foundational credentials such as mandatory gateways and access to essential public and private services are increasingly facing flaws in architectural design and utility, technical failures, and inaccurate records,” the report claims in its conclusion.The result is often widespread exclusion of vulnerable groups, according to the report, particularly affecting people with limited digital skills, poor connectivity or difficulties accessing civil registration systems which include rural communities, women, children and the elderly.The report lists an extensive number of recommendations that can offset such problems. The recommendations include establishing robust governance such as rights-respecting national policies and laws, along with investment in complementary infrastructure to foster connectivity and capacity enhancement.It recommends replacing coverage-only targets with disaggregated meaningful-connectivity and service-completion indicators; stopping internet shutdowns and other blanket connectivity restrictions as tools of political or security management, among other suggestions. The full State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2026 report can be read here.The report was launched at the closing ceremony of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica26) held in Mauritius. Mauritius’ Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Avinash Ramtoh, described DPI as “a critical infrastructure in any forward-looking country” and stressed the need to ensure digital systems are inclusive, accessible and rights-respecting.The report’s release marked the conclusion of FIFAfrica26, a four-day gathering that brought together policymakers, researchers, civil society organizations, journalists, technologists, activists and development partners from across Africa and beyond. Discussions focused on issues including AI, data governance, platform accountability, digital inclusion and security, and civic participation. A recurring message was that technology is inseparable from society and that decisions about the design, governance and use of digital systems have profound consequences for rights, participation and power.As Africa’s digital transformation accelerates, the report argues that these questions will become increasingly important in shaping how citizens access services, engage with governments and exercise their rights in the years ahead.

UK sets rules for live facial recognition in immigration enforcement-Home Office policy establishes watchlist safeguards, human oversight and accuracy thresholds for immigration operations-Oct 13, 2026, 3:02 pm EDT | Joel R. McConvey

The UK has published updated guidance governing Immigration Enforcement’s use of live facial recognition to locate people of immigration law enforcement interest, setting out rules for watchlists, deployment locations, human oversight and biometric matching thresholds.The Home Office policy covers operations beyond ports of entry, including transport hubs and joint deployments with police, while establishing safeguards intended to ensure that facial recognition is used lawfully and proportionately.The new guidelines instruct IE staff on “how to use overt LFR to locate relevant people lawfully and ethically” and “support IE’s and the Home Office’s legitimate immigration enforcement aims.  It provides a summary of the operational use of LFR and the governance and oversight applied.“IE staff must follow the agreed LFR policies and processes,” it says. “This helps IE use LFR lawfully and effectively, with appropriate safeguards, and helps maintain trust and confidence among the public, partners and other stakeholders.”Deployments must be contextual, proportional, time-limited-To that end, the document lays out step-by-step protocols on “how the IE Live Facial Recognition (LFR) policy works from lawful purpose to accountable deployment,” in addition to a host of safety and governance considerations.Defining lawful purpose comes first. Then, it is determined who is eligible to be on an LFR watchlist. Watchlists are compiled with safeguards applied, requiring them to be linked to a defined deployment objective, location and context; time limited; and proportional, with a necessity and proportionality assessment completed. Use must be overt and subject to human decisions about engagement or enforcement.Images of people who do not generate an alert are “automatically and permanently deleted,” and deployments must be “monitored, reviewed and accountable.”Per the document, IE’s Emerging Technology Team (Strategic Services and Transformation) provides senior internal oversight for LFR. The policy states that “transparency is the default position for Immigration Enforcement’s use of LFR. Any departure from advance notice is exceptional, must be justified and recorded, and does not affect the requirement that deployments remain overt and subject to post-deployment publication and scrutiny.”The policy also makes clear that Immigration Enforcement’s use of live facial recognition is not confined to ports of entry. Deployments may take place at transport hubs, along travel routes and at events, subject to assessments of necessity, proportionality and operational risk. Higher-risk deployments require additional oversight.The guidance also provides for cooperation with police forces, including joint deployments in which Immigration Enforcement can supply watchlists for police facial recognition systems or process police-supplied data through its own systems. The arrangements extend the potential operational reach of facial recognition in immigration enforcement while requiring deployments to remain subject to the policy’s safeguards.Testing gets specific on false alert rate metrics-The guidance is extensive, and includes key performance metrics on false alert rate (FAR) for the biometric technology powering live facial recognition: operational experience suggests that, in most scenarios, FAR should generally be 0.1 percent or lower, equivalent to fewer than one false alert per 1,000 comparisons.It also cites testing done in 2021 by South Wales Police (SWP) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), to “test the accuracy and equitability of facial recognition tech in operational settings,” and specifically to a report on the NEC system used by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) police forces.“After considering the report’s findings, engaging with UK police facial recognition leads, and deploying LFR with police support, IE will continue to use a threshold of 0.64 for IE-led deployments using approved and objectively tested technology,” it says. The study also notes that “the system was more likely to recognise watchlist subjects as age increased.”

South Africa to launch biometric asylum application platform in November-New system aims to speed up asylum processing and detect identity fraud as Home Affairs tackles a backlog of 120,000 appeals.Oct 13, 2026, 2:25 pm EDT | Stephen Mayhew

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) says it intends to launch a biometric online application platform for asylum seekers by November 10. The move comes as the government continues its push to expand the use of biometrics to tackle identity fraud and improve its handling of migration-related issues.The information was disclosed by Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, speaking during an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration media briefing in Pretoria on October 11.According to Schreiber, the envisaged system would allow DHA officials to verify applicants’ identities, identify people who have previously submitted unsuccessful applications, authenticate passports and other travel documents, and check for other recorded immigration infringements. He said the principal objective was to speed up asylum application processing while reducing abuse of the system. The minister explained that the platform will require asylum applicants to submit biometric information, which DHA will use to verify their identities.The launch comes as Home Affairs faces an estimated backlog of 120,000 asylum appeals. Schreiber told the media that he did not have exact figures for the backlog, but he estimated that around 120,000 appeals were yet to be fully processed. He disclosed that initial applications were being processed in approximately 30 days, with the main delays occurring during appeals. In this regard, he said the department had brought in 74 advocates to step up its capacity to process pending appeals.Per the DHA, biometric checks are helping advance its ongoing digital transformation push, and giving meaning to the fight against identity fraud. The department this week welcomed the arrest of two former officials linked to a passport fraud syndicate uncovered in 2022. In a statement, the department noted that the syndicate exploited a manual-process loophole known as photo swapping, and used the identity details of legitimate citizens to obtain passports bearing photographs of foreign nationals.Officials underscored the importance of the ongoing reforms that now require biometric verification for passport applicants, including when photographs are captured. According to officials, this has helped close the loophole by making it more difficult to substitute another person’s photograph during passport processing.In July, Home Affairs announced that it was looking for a service provider to build a system and supply biometric devices for a field campaign aimed at conducting identity verification as part of the government’s push against illegal migration.The tender called for expertise in the development, support and maintenance of a biometric case management system for the department’s Inspectorate Directorate, along with 600 handheld devices with built-in biometric readers.The asylum platform and the planned case management system reflect South Africa’s sustained push to integrate biometrics into immigration administration and other public service delivery processes.Earlier this month, Schreiber presented an assessment of his 27 months in office, outlining the gains made in building South Africa’s digital transformation infrastructure. On that occasion, he also demonstrated a prototype of the country’s upcoming digital ID and unveiled plans to phase out the controversial green ID book.

Yoti adds ConnectID bank verification to its age assurance product in Australia-Customer choice and privacy are emerging as two pillars for age assurance industry -Oct 13, 2026, 11:51 am EDT | Joel R. McConvey

UK digital identity provider Yoti has integrated Australian-owned ConnectID’s digital identity exchange into its age assurance platform, giving users in Australia the option to use bank account verification for online age checks via Australia’s bank-backed digital identity infrastructure.According to a release, Yoti users who choose the ConnectID option for verifying their age online will be securely redirected to their banking app, which already has their verified details, and can provide confirmation that an account holder meets the minimum age requirement for the service in question.Per the release, “no identity documents are uploaded or shared with platforms, and no personal data is shared – not even a name or date of birth – ensuring privacy and anonymity.”Age verification through ConnectID is already available for major platforms including Snapchat and Reddit, and is expanding its work with Epic Games through Kids Web Services (KWS).New Australian regulations cover 18+ rated games-Having paved the way for social media age checks with its 2025 law, Australia is forging ahead with its online safety mission, implementing new regulations to help shape a safer internet. Yoti’s ConnectID integration is partly in response to new age assurance requirements taking effect under Australia’s Age-Restricted Material Codes, which affect games and apps given an R18+ rating.Yoti CEO Robin Tombs says that, “as age checks become increasingly common online, businesses need age assurance that is effective, secure and privacy-preserving. We’re giving companies a range of proven methods so they can strengthen age checks, respond to evolving regulations and give customers a choice in how they prove their age.”The statement reflects the establishment of two pillars for the age assurance industry: give users a choice in how to prove their age, and make sure all the options are privacy-preserving.Rick Iversen, Head of ConnectID, speaks to how the principle of data minimization underpins that second commitment. “ConnectID is designed around a simple principle: share only the minimum needed. If a platform needs to know that you’re over 16 or over 18, that’s the information it receives and nothing else – not your date of birth, not a copy of your identity document, and not your biometrics.”

Biometrics Institute celebrates 25 years fostering responsible deployments-Upcoming events in Australia, UK continue legacy of community collaboration-Oct 13, 2026, 11:44 am EDT | Chris Burt

The Biometrics Institute is celebrating its Silver Jubilee as the world’s foremost organization for industry discussion and guidance at the group’s upcoming Congress in London and at a dedicated event in Canberra, Australia on November 25.Silver Jubilee Celebrations replace the Institute’s annual Showcase Australia with a half-day event of three sessions, brunch and informal conversation.The Biometrics Institute Congress and side events will be held in London from October 20 to 22. Congress events on the 20th and 21st will examine “A History of the Future of Biometrics,” asking the big question facing the industry and considering 25 years of industry change and development.Over its quarter-century history, the Biometrics Institute has developed and promoted resources including annual industry surveys, 23 Good Practice guides, Biometrics Explainer videos, the Biometrics Essentials educational tool and the Institute’s Three Laws of Biometrics. The Biometrics Institute community also contributed to the UN’s  “Compendium of Recommended Practices for Responsible Use & Sharing of Biometrics in Counter Terrorism.”The Biometrics Institute also released a concepts and solutions report called “Biometrics: Keeping it Real” to explore the relationship between digital identity and physical authenticity earlier this year.Former Leidos executive John Mears described the role of the organization and its place in the development of the broader biometrics industry: “The Institute fulfilled an essential role in facilitating world-wide collaboration between suppliers and users, particularly government users.  My own customers were predominantly government users, mostly in law enforcement, aviation security, and border security within the U.S., UK, and Australia. The collaboration gave customers confidence in sensitive deployments because of shared use cases, shared best practices, and guidelines developed by the Institute with member inputs.  Beyond the conferences, the workshops provided a forum for forthright exchanges under Chatham House rules, building comradery in a community that sometimes felt like it was under siege.”Comments from representatives for London’s Metropolitan Police Service and Australia’s Department of Home Affairs praised the group’s impact on biometrics education.“When I established the Biometrics Institute 25 years ago, the ambition was to create an independent forum where government, industry and academia could come together to address both the opportunities and challenges of biometrics,” says Biometrics Institute Founder Ted Dunstone. “It’s extraordinary to see how far the technology and the Institute have come, while the fundamental need for trust, evidence and responsible use remains as important as ever.”Biometrics Institute Chief Executive Isabelle Moeller noted that “the responsible use of machine learning technologies are now more important than ever,” and lauds the willingness of the community of professional experts to share the lessons learned from their experiences.Institute Chairman Jakob Glynstrup emphasized the organization’s role in fostering trust, dialogue and responsible innovation by bringing together people, groups and ideas.Robert Mocny, who pioneered America’s US-VISIT traveler fingerprinting program while with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, credited the Biometrics Institute with giving DHS access to expertise to help with its research efforts, as well as fostering international cooperation.