Light News (LN)

  Amid reports of troop deployment to the West Bank to contain settler violence and warnings of manpower shortage by Israel's top general, Euronews spoke to two Israeli experts to gauge the pressure on the country's security and internal stability. Amid reports that Israel is taking steps to rein in settler violence in the West Bank and has diverted troops from Lebanon to the Palestinian territory for that purpose, Euronews spoke to two Israeli analysts to understand the threat posed by ultra-nationalist settlers. The troop redeployment from an active war front to a less critical area is happening as Israel's military chief of staff General Eyal Zamir has warned that the army is severely short-staffed and is "going to collapse on itself". We also put the question of mounting pressure on the army to former Israeli ambassador to France and historian Eli Barnavi, and to Major General (res) Yaakov Amidror, a former national security advisor now distinguished fellow at...

  Announcement comes days after Russian tanker brought some 700,000 barrels of crude to Cuba in response to energy crisis. Russia plans to send a second ship  carrying oil to Cuba , the Russian energy minister has said, as the Caribbean nation struggles under a crippling United States blockade. Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said on Thursday that the cargo was being loaded and would be brought to Cuba. Cuba is in a total blockade; it’s been cut off. Whose shipment of oil made it? A Russian vessel broke through the blockade,” Tsivilev said, referring to a first Russian tanker that reached the island earlier this week. “A second one is being loaded right now. We will not leave Cubans alone in trouble.” His comments come just days after a Russian-flagged tanker carrying about 700,000 barrels of crude  docked in Cuba’s Matanzas oil terminal  on Tuesday, marking the first significant oil delivery to the country in about three months. US President Donald Trump’s administr...

  After strikes on Iran’s leadership, who’s left in power and how will they shape the country’s response? Strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel have killed senior figures, raising questions about who still holds power. We take a closer look at the key players inside Iran’s system and explain how it works, who shapes decisions and what the loss of top figures could mean for the country’s response to the US-Israel war. Source: Aljazeera

  President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he will order that all Department of Homeland Security employees be paid, as Congress again took steps toward ending the longest-ever partial government shutdown. The move  would expand Trump’s earlier directive  for DHS to unilaterally pay Transportation and Security Administration workers in a bid to alleviate travel backlogs at understaffed airports. It was not immediately clear how the president would fund pay for the tens of thousands of other DHS staffers — including Federal Emergency Management Agency workers, civilians in the US Coast Guard, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency employees — who have been reporting for work without compensation. “Thank you to all of our Great Congressional Republicans, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Senate Leader John Thune, for their work this week. Republicans are UNIFIED, and moving forward on a plan that will reload funding for our FANTASTIC Border Patrol and Immigr...

  The comments come after a prime-time address at the White House in which US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Ages, where they belong." Iran has threatened "crushing" attacks on the United States and Israel, after US President Donald Trump vowed to bomb the Islamic Republic "back to the Stone Ages." Tehran will continue fighting until the US and Israel face "permanent regret and surrender," Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson of the Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, said in comments carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency. He said Iran would step up military operations and launch "more crushing, broader and more destructive" attacks on its enemies. Those comments come after a prime-time address at the White House in which Trump said the US was "very close" to achieving its objectives but warned attacks would intensify if Iran did not reach a negotiated settlement. "Over the next ...

  President  Donald Trump  revealed during Wednesday night's Iran address that one of his top achievements against Iran, which he described as spanning across both his terms, was shredding former President Barack Obama's 2015 nuclear deal. Trump described the efforts in the Middle East as making "tremendous progress" and called Operation Epic Fury "necessary for the safety of America and the security of the free world."  Meanwhile, he slammed Iran as "fanatical," "murderous" and "thuggish," arguing that letting them have a nuclear weapon "would be an intolerable threat." While slamming Obama's 2015 deal, the president cited the $400 million cash payment the former president's administration flew to Iran in an effort to "buy their respect and loyalty." "The most violent and thuggish regime on Earth would be free to carry out their campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest and mass murder from behind...

  "U.S. citizens should leave Iraq now," the U.S. Embassy warned, citing threats from militias aligned with Iran to carry out attacks in Baghdad. The U.S. Embassy in  Iraq  has warned Americans to leave the country as soon as possible over threats from militias aligned with Iran to carry out imminent attacks in  Baghdad  over the next two days. "U.S. citizens should leave Iraq now," the embassy warned in an alert  published  Thursday. Anyone who chooses to remain in the country will do so "at significant risk," it added. The warning came just days after reports emerged of the  kidnapping of American journalist Shelly Kittleson , who was feared to have been abducted in Baghdad on Tuesday by suspected Iranian-backed militants. Dylan Johnson, the assistant secretary of state for global affairs, said a person believed to have been involved in the kidnapping had been captured and was in Iraqi custody. He said the person had ties to the Iranian-aligned ...

  President Donald Trump hailed the U.S. military’s “unstoppable” prowess in  the war with Iran , telling Americans in a prime-time address Wednesday night that the conflict, now entering its second month, will end “shortly” without offering a definite timeline. Delivered on Day 32 and framed as an operational update, Trump’s speech offered the clearest public case yet for the conflict, arguing it is necessary for the security of the free world and laying out a framework that he said would measure American success. “Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track and the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat,” Trump said. “This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future. The whole world is watching." Still, he said the conflict would continue until the military objectives were "fully achieved." “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” he said. “We’re...