Month: August 2024

Seven people, including an Australian, died when the Israeli military struck three World Central Kitchen vehicles.

AI-powered companions are a growing industry amid rising loneliness and disillusionment with modern dating.

Journalists, artists, dissidents, hackers and a hitman go free as 26 swapped in large-scale prisoner exchange.

US chipmaker to cut 15 percent of workforce as part of efforts to cut costs by $10bn in 2025.

The law arrives as part of a slate of harsher criminal penalties. But critics say it punishes more than it protects.

As the war enters its 889th day, these are the main developments.

A new poll about a planned US missile deployment to Germany shows that more Germans are opposed to the idea than favor it.

The US recently announced that starting in 2026, it will be deploying missile systems that were previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which prohibited land-based missile systems with a range between 310 and 3,400 miles.

The poll, conducted by the Forsa Institute, found that 49% of Germans think the new missile deployment is “not right,” while 45% support the idea. Opposition is stronger among Germans living in states that used to be East Germany, with 74% of them against the plan.

The US announced the deployment in a joint statement with Germany, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing opposition to the plan from within his own party and coalition government.

“Not every weapon makes Germany immediately safer,” Rolf Mützenich, the parliamentary leader of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SDP), told POLITICO. Mützenich previously warned that the “danger of an unintentional military escalation is considerable.”

Senior members of the SDP who are concerned about the deployment said they would call a debate about it in September. “The current debate surrounding the announced stationing of long-range conventional weapons systems in Germany concerns us all,” they said in a note seen by POLITICO.

The US announced its deployment would include Tomahawk missiles, which are nuclear-capable and have a range of over 1,000 miles. Tomahawks are typically used on US Navy destroyers and submarines since a land-based version was banned by the INF.

The US also said it will send SM-6 missiles to Germany, which signals it’s planning to deploy a Typhon missile system. The Typhon is a covert system concealed in a 40-foot shipping container that can fire Tomahawks and SM-6 missiles. The SM-6 can hit targets up to 290 miles away, below the levels previously banned by the INF. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed Russia will respond to the deployment by ending its moratorium on deploying missiles previously banned by the INF. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said he wouldn’t rule out the idea of Moscow deploying nuclear-armed missiles in response.

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President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and promised the US would help defend Israel from any reprisal attacks it may face from Iran or its allies in response to recent Israeli escalations.

Iran is vowing revenge for the Israeli assassination of Hamas’s political chief in Tehran, and Hezbollah is warning it will escalate in response to the Israeli strike in Beirut that killed one of its top commanders.

“The President reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” the White House said in a readout of the Biden-Netanyahu call.

Biden also said the US was deploying more military assets to the region. “The President discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive US military deployments,” the readout said. The White House said Vice President Kamala Harris was also on the call.

A Pentagon official told The Washington Post that the US had assembled 12 warships in the Middle East that were already in the region to prepare to defend Israel. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and six US Navy destroyers are in the Persian Gulf, while three amphibious ships and two destroyers are in the Eastern Mediterranean.

US officials told Axios that the US is preparing for a direct Iranian attack on Israel and believes it could be bigger than the April 13 missile and drone attack that came in response to the Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. The next attack could include Hezbollah and other Iranian allies.

Biden, Harris, and other US officials claim they’re trying to reduce tensions. But unconditional US military aid for Israel and vows to defend Israel no matter what it does in the region only emboldens Netanyahu and leads to more escalations.