A major offensive would have “terrible consequences,” the US Secretary of State has said The US believes that Israel could achieve its military objectives in Gaza without an invasion of the city of Rafah, which Washington will not support, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said. The statement was made on Friday at a news conference following a summit of G7 foreign ministers on the Italian island of Capri. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted his country will conduct a military operation in Rafah, despite concerns over the potential civilian death toll. Members of the Isra ..read more

US tax dollars were used to help West Jerusalem target Tehran’s American-made F-14 fighter jets, the SpaceX CEO says Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took aim at Israel’s strikes on an Iranian airbase, suggesting that West Jerusalem used US money to attack American-made jets, which had been sold to the Shah during the Cold War era. On Friday, several media outlets reported that Israel had struck targets across Iran. The airstrike came nearly a week after Iran launched a series of its own attacks on Israel using hundreds of drones and missiles in response to what Tehran says was a deadly Israeli ..read more

Both Tehran and West Jerusalem have downplayed the event Explosions near the Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday morning were Israeli strikes on a military airfield, the New York Times claimed on Friday, citing anonymous sources. Neither Israel nor Iran has officially commented on the incident. Israel vowed to “respond” to last Saturday’s drone and missile strike by Iran, itself reprisal for the April 1 bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria that killed several senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. Residents of the Iranian cities of Isfahan and ..read more

Papua New Guinean tribes are unlikely to have eaten the US president’s uncle, an academic has told The Guardian Academics from Papua New Guinea have criticized US President Joe Biden for suggesting that their countrymen ate his uncle after a wartime plane crash. Local tribes “wouldn’t just eat any white men that fell from the sky,” one lecturer told The Guardian. Speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Biden recounted the alleged fate of 2nd Lieutenant Ambrose J Finnegan Jr., whose reconnaissance plane was “shot down in New Guinea” in 1944. “They never found his body,” Biden ..read more

Moscow has reported making new gains in Donbass, while continuing its campaign against critical Ukrainian facilities The past week in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has seen continued active combat at multiple locations along the front line, with the most intense hostilities in Donbass, where Moscow continues its effort to push westwards. Russia also launched large-scale, long-range strikes on critical Ukrainian infrastructure, including multiple thermal power plants, completely obliterating the largest facility in Kiev Region. New gains in Donbass On Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry announ ..read more

The bloc’s regulator has urged caution in the reduction of liquified natural gas imports from Russia as the transit deal with Ukraine nears expiration The EU’s energy regulator has warned against drastic reductions of imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Russia, despite the bloc’s ambition to completely end its reliance on fossil fuels from the country over the Ukraine conflict. In the 2024 Market Monitoring Report released on Friday, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) said that “reductions in Russian LNG imports should be approached with caution,” particularly g ..read more

It took West Jerusalem decades to deploy a comprehensive system to protect its skies from all kinds of threats, the French president has said It is impossible for the West to provide Ukraine with a version of Israel’s famed Iron Dome air defense system, because it has neither the time nor the resources to accomplish such a feat, French President Emmanuel Macron has said. Speaking at a press conference after a European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Macron stressed the urgency of Western countries providing Ukraine with various types of air defense systems. When asked about the possib ..read more

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said this was the message he relayed to American counterpart Antony Blinken Ukraine does not have a ‘Plan B’ for the conflict with Russia if the US Congress refuses to approve more military aid for Kiev, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said. The diplomat told Ukraine’s Rada broadcaster on Thursday that this was the message he had impressed on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier the same day, when the pair met on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers’ summit on the Italian island of Capri. The administration of US President Joe Biden ..read more

Air defenses have reportedly been activated in several provinces of the Islamic Republic Israel carried out strikes in Iran in the early hours of Friday, multiple news outlets reported, citing senior US officials. The news comes less than a week after the Islamic Republic fired a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel. Iranian news agency Mehr reported that several explosions were heard around 4 am local time in the skies over the central city of Isfahan. Broadcaster IRNA said that air defenses have been activated in some parts of Iran. It added that Israel also struck targets in Syria ..read more

The employees were ousted after staging sit-ins at the company’s offices Google has fired 28 workers who protested against the company’s ties with the Israeli government amid the continuing war in Gaza. The Silicon Valley-based tech giant claimed that defiant employees were disrupting the normal work process.  “Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” Google spokesperson said in a statement to the media on Wednesday. “After refusing multiple requests to leave the ..read more