The EU has transferred €1 billion of macro-financial aid to Ukraine, bringing its total spending on supporting Kiev since the beginning of the special military operation to €150 billion, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.
“Today we disburse a new €1 billion to Ukraine, bringing our total support to almost 150 billion,” she wrote.
Israel is opening the door to assassinating Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
According to The Wall Street Journal, an Israeli official said that assasinating the theocratic leader was “not off limits.”
“The war would only end either with Iran voluntarily dismantling its nuclear program or Israel making it impossible for Tehran to reconstitute it,” the official was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, an official told Amit Segal of Israel’s N12 News channel that Israel would not rule out the possibility of an assassinaiton attempt.
“Israel is not ruling out the possibility of eliminating Ali Khamenei, but it depends on many things.”
The warning comes after Israel launched a series of missile strikes against Iranian targets on Thursday evening, with a particular focus on eliminating the country’s nuclear program.
This prompted Tehran to retaliate with a series of their own missile strikes, although so far they have been largely unsucessful.
A Vladimir Putin general claimed today that World War 3 has already started following Israel’s strikes on Iranian soil on Thursday night. Maj-Gen Apti Alaudinov, 51, urged the Kremlin to carry out mass mobilisation of up to one million fresh troops.
In a message published on the social media platform Telegram on Friday, the deputy chief of the Russian armed forces’ main military-political directorate wrote: “We need to declare mobilisation.” Alaudinov, who is a prominent propagandist and the commander of the Chechnya-based Akhmat special forces, added: “We need to prepare at least half a million people in advance. But realistically one million people. We need to call them up and start preparing them for the fact that the war has already begun, which we already know is happening – World War 3. But it has already taken on a new turn and a new momentum.
“And so that no one dares to play with us the way they played with all the other countries, and now with Iran.
“Believe me, we all need to unite, unite, unite at all levels.”
Alaudinov has been closely involved with Russia’s effort to win back territory controlled by Ukraine in Kursk, the region partially captured by Kyiv’s troops in a daring advance in August last year.
He is also seen as a probable successor to pro-Putin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Following the opening salvo in Israel’s bombardment of Iran, many members of Congress rushed to declare their support for the Jewish state. Some went further, demanding the White House defend Tel Aviv from retaliation. A small number of lawmakers criticized Israel and urged Washington to stay out of the conflict.
Shortly after the start of the Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, military bases, and residential buildings early on Friday morning, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) posted on X, “Game on. Pray for Israel.”
Graham led a chorus of largely Republican lawmakers who called for prayers for Israel as it attacked Iran.
Some lawmakers hoped the war would bring down the Iranian government. “The threat from Iran will only stop when the regime is destroyed,” Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-FL) said. “Anything less is just a temporary respite from the existential threat Iran poses to our allies and the free world.”
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Sunday that they targeted Israel in coordination with Iran, the first time an Iran-aligned group has publicly announced joint cooperation on attacks with Tehran.
The Yemeni group targeted central Israel’s Jaffa with several ballistic missiles in the last 24 hours, military spokesperson Yehya Sarea said in a televised address.
“Triumphing for the oppressed Palestinian and Iranian peoples…This operation was coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian army against the criminal Israeli enemy,” he added.
The Israeli military earlier said sirens were activated in several areas in the country following missile launches from Iran and Yemen.
Israel and Iran continued to exchange missile attacks since Israel launched its biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy on Friday.
Israeli forces carried out massacres across the Gaza Strip this week, killing 497 Palestinians and wounding nearly 2,100 between 5 June and 11 June, targeting Palestinian men, women and children in residential buildings, school shelters, tent shelters, and at so-called aid distribution points.
Israel killed at least 123 Palestinians between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.
Nearly half of those deaths recorded in those 24 hours were people killed while trying to retrieve meager parcels of aid at the US-Israeli distribution points.
Since the shadowy, so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began its operations two weeks ago, the health ministry says that more than 220 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,800 injured while trying to obtain food.
The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah has had to activate its mass casualty incident procedure 12 times since the aid scheme began, receiving high numbers of patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, reporting that an “overwhelming majority of patients from the recent incidents said they had been trying to reach assistance distribution sites.”
On 5 June, Doctors Without Borders said that physicians began donating their own blood to save their patients after scores of Palestinians were gunned down trying to get food aid.
In northern Gaza, Israel relentlessly pounded areas of Jabaliya and Gaza City this week.
On Saturday, 7 June, 30 people were reported killed in an airstrike on a residential building in Gaza City, according to the Palestinian civil defense, while four new displacement orders were issued for areas in northern Gaza.
Sirens reportedly sounded off Friday night at the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
On Thursday the US Embassy in Iraq ordered a departure of all non-emergency US Government personnel from the compound and all of Iraq.
Location: Iraq, countrywide
Event: On June 11, the U.S. Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Iraq.
Actions to Take:
U.S. citizens who wish to depart should take advantage of commercial transportation options.
Enroll in STEP at step.state.gov to receive critical information from the Embassy related to health and safety in Iraq.
Have a contingency plan for emergencies and review the Traveler’s Checklist .Iraq Travel Advisory Level 4: Do Not Travel
This is frightening. The US Embassy is warning people in English to step away from the windows and await further instructions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force if necessary but refused to answer repeated questions at a hotly combative congressional hearing Thursday about his use of Signal chats to discuss military operations.
Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly got into heated exchanges with Hegseth, with some of the toughest lines of questioning coming from military veterans as many demanded yes or no answers and he tried to avoid direct responses about his actions as Pentagon chief.
In one back-and-forth, Hegseth did provide an eyebrow-raising answer. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., asked whether the Pentagon has developed plans to take Greenland or Panama by force if necessary.
“Our job at the Defense Department is to have plans for any contingency,” Hegseth said several times.
It is not unusual for the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans for conflicts that have not arisen, but his handling of the questions prompted a Republican lawmaker to step in a few minutes later.
US forces are assisting Israel as Iran launches drone missile attacks on Israel.
Early Friday morning local time, Israel launched strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Explosions were heard across Tehran.
On Thursday, the US said Israel took unilateral action Iran.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” the White House said.
As Iranian ballistic missiles rain down on Tel Aviv, and US forces are reportedly helping to repel them, Tucker Carlson has called out those who seem to want the US to get involved as “warmongers.”
The Iranian counterstrike came after Israel launched a massive campaign of precision strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and missile sites.
Scientists involved with Iranian nuclear work were also reportedly directly targeted for assassination, along with Iranian Revolutionary Guard leadership.
President Trump declared Friday morning that Iran must make a deal immediately before it is completely obliterated.
It may already be too late though as Israel says “red lines” have been crossed by Iran targeting civilian areas in Tel Aviv.
Taking to X in response to the escalation, Tucker Carlson wrote “The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians.”
“The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers,” he added.
“Who are the warmongers?” Carlson continued, emphasising “They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran.”
He then went on to name “Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.