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8-year-old Ukrainian girl in Israel for cancer treatment killed in Iranian missile attack

8-year-old Ukrainian girl in Israel for cancer treatment killed in Iranian missile attack

Edmonton Journal20 hours ago

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The dead in Sunday's attack in Bat Yam included Anastasia (Nastia) Borik, an 8-year-old first grader who was being treated for leukemia at Sheba Medical Center's oncology unit.
She was killed along with her mother Maria Peshkurova, 31, her grandmother Olena (Yelena) Peshkurova, 54, and her cousins Konstantin Totvich, 10 and Ilya Peshkurov, 15.
The family had come to Israel from the Ukrainian city of Odessa as tourists in December 2022 for her life-saving medical treatment.
If Iran collapses, regime officials likely to flee to Canada
Four Israelis were also killed in the pre-dawn missile attack. It was the single most lethal Iranian strike on Israel over the last six days.
24 people have been killed and hundreds injured in more than 400 Iranian missile attacks across Israel.

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Israel and Iran launch strikes a week into their war as new diplomatic effort takes shape
Israel and Iran launch strikes a week into their war as new diplomatic effort takes shape

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Israel and Iran launch strikes a week into their war as new diplomatic effort takes shape

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History in reruns
History in reruns

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History in reruns

Opinion I've seen this movie already. I don't want to see it again. 'They lied,' said U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016, when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination against the neocons in his own party who had started the 'forever wars' in Afghanistan and Iraq. 'They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none. And they knew there were none.' Invading the wrong country is generally a big mistake, and everybody outside the United States knew it (except maybe Britain's Tony Blair). However, then-president George W. Bush had to believe in Saddam Hussein's alleged 'weapons of mass destruction' so that he could invade Iraq and expunge the blame for having let 9/11 happen on his watch. (Yes, I know Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. Don't get tangled up in the details. The point is that Bush managed to persuade Americans of a link between Saddam and 9/11.) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu is in a similar position. He not only failed to prevent Hamas from carrying out the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023; he had previously allowed a flow of cash from Qatar into the Gaza Strip in order to ensure that the Palestinians remained divided between Hamas and Fatah. Bibi must erase his guilt for that failure if he is to have a political future, and even the expulsion of the Palestinian population from Gaza (now being prepared) may not be enough. Whereas the destruction of the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons threat, and perhaps of the entire Iranian regime, could earn him full absolution within Israel. Netanyahu is genuinely obsessed about such weapons, but there is also always a tactical, political element in his warnings. He said Iran was 'three to five years away from a bomb' in 1992. He said it again in 1995. It was allegedly only one year away in 2012, and it has always been 'imminent' since 2019. Which brings us to the congressional testimony of Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's own director of national intelligence, on March 26 of this year. She said that the U.S. intelligence community 'continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.' Finally, an American official who thinks she is working for her country, not for her party — but then she is also a combat veteran (Iraq) and a lieutenant-colonel in the National Guard. She takes her job seriously, and does not fall for all that guff about an Iranian nuclear weapons program. There once was such a program. It began in the mid-1980s, when the fledgling Islamic Republic of Iran was invaded by Iraq (with U.S. encouragement and support). It was cancelled after the U.S. invaded Iraq and found no nuclear weapons there in 2003, and to the best of our knowledge, it has not been restarted since then. All Middle Eastern governments know that they would face a pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike if they ever sought nuclear weapons of their own. (Israel has had nuclear weapons since the late 1960s and now has a hundred or more, deliverable by planes, missiles and submarines.) The idea that Iran is working on such weapons now is frankly ridiculous. The whole show is performative nonsense. Even if Iran had weapons-grade uranium now, fabricating warheads, testing the weapons and devising a reliable means of delivery (it has nothing suitable now) would take years. Whereas if Israel really believed Tehran were close to success now, it would have nuked all of Iran's facilities six months ago. Trump has long known that Bibi was trying to sucker him into a joint war against Iran, and never fell for it before. Why now? Probably because he just can't resist the opportunity to strut around emoting on the stage. Look at his recent tweets. 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.' And a couple of minutes later: 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!' They won't surrender. This will be Trump's own 'forever war.' Gwynne Dyer's new book is Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World's Climate Engineers.

Orbán's anti-Ukraine campaign targets political rival as Hungary's elections loom
Orbán's anti-Ukraine campaign targets political rival as Hungary's elections loom

Winnipeg Free Press

time2 hours ago

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Orbán's anti-Ukraine campaign targets political rival as Hungary's elections loom

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Going further, he has accused his leading political opponent of entering into a treasonous pact with Kyiv to overthrow his government and install a pro-Western, pro-Ukraine administration. Orbán opposes Ukraine's accession to the EU Some of his ideas mirror the growing anti-Ukraine messaging coming from right-wing populists in the West, including from President Donald Trump. 'Let's be under no illusions: Brussels and Ukraine are jointly building up a puppet government (in Hungary),' Orbán said on June 6 in comments to state radio. 'They want to change Hungary's policy toward Ukraine after the next elections, or even sooner.' At the heart of Orbán's claims is Ukraine's ambition to join the EU, something Kyiv believes would place it firmly within the embrace of the West and provide a measure of security against potential Russian attacks in the future. While Orbán was a firm supporter of Ukraine's eventual EU accession shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he now argues that its membership — which will likely take many years — would flood Hungary with crime, cheap labor, and low-quality agricultural products, threatening national sovereignty and economic stability. He has also spuriously claimed that Brussels and Kyiv intend to force Hungarians to fight Russia on the front lines. On Monday, Orbán posted a video to his social media page depicting animated, artificial intelligence-generated scenes of bloodied, machine-gun wielding Hungarian soldiers engaged in armed conflict, and rows of caskets lined beneath Hungarian flags. 'We don't want our children, in the form of the Hungarian army, to be deployed to the Ukrainian front lines or to Ukrainian territory and to come back in coffins,' he said in the video. 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The prime minister accused Magyar and Tisza of being 'pro-Ukrainian' and supporting Ukraine's EU bid, and alleging that a prominent Tisza member, the former chief of staff of the Hungarian military, has 'deep ties with Ukrainian intelligence.' No evidence has been provided to support the claims, which Magyar has dismissed outright. 'It is outrageous and blood-boiling when a patriot who trained and prepared to be a soldier since the age of 14 and who took a military oath … is accused of treason by people who would sell their country out,' Magyar told a news conference on June 5. Ukraine pushes back To reinforce its message, the Hungarian government launched a state-funded communication blitz in March, accompanied by a non-binding 'national consultation' on Ukraine's EU membership. Billboards, television ads, and social media posts have flooded the country, portraying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the architects of a plot to undermine, or even destroy Hungary. 'They would bring Ukraine into the EU, but we would pay the price!' reads one poster. 'Let's vote no!' Ukrainian officials have been restrained in reacting to the Hungarian campaign. But in an interview published last week in Hungarian outlet Válasz Online, Zelenskyy criticized the government's use of his face as part of its media barrage, and accused Orbán of being 'anti-Ukrainian and anti-European.' 'He is using this in his domestic policy: he wants to turn the war in Ukraine to his own advantage in the elections. That is dishonest,' Zelenskyy said. In a post on X on Tuesday, Ukraine's foreign ministry also pushed back on Hungary's accusations. 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