WAR WITH IRAN - DAY 83 MAY 21,26 - RUSSIA, CHINA IS HELPING IRAN.

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)

WAR WITH IRAN - DAY 83 MAY 21,26 - RUSSIA, CHINA IS HELPING IRAN.

THE NEXT US-ISRAEL HIT ON IRAN SHOULD BE VERSE 37. ALL OFFENSIVE NUKE SITES MISSLES,DRONES,AND OF COURSE KHEMENI AND THE IRGC GUARDS.THEN AFTER IRANS REGIME CHANGE. MUSLIMS COME TO JESUS BY THE MILLIONS.

JEREMEIAH 49:32-39 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR OR ARAK NUKE SITES AND ALL OFENSIVE WEAPONS DESTROYED IN IRAN)
Jeremiah 49:32-39    
32 Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners [of their hair] cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says Yahweh.
33 Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.(Location & Size: It was strategically located along the Via Maris (Way of the Sea), a major trade route connecting Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia.)
34 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam,(IRAN) in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
35 Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRANS OFFENSIVE WEAPONS) the chief of their might.(MISSLES AND NUKE SITES)
36 On Elam (IRAN) will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(SINCE 1979 IRANIANS HAVE GOTTIN OUT OF IRAN BECAUSE OF KHEMENI AND HIS APOCOPOLIPTIC DEATH CULT BELIEF-BLACK HATER 12ERS)
37 I will cause Elam (IRAN) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life;(ISRAEL THE LITTLE SATAN AND THE U.S THE BIG SATAN) and I will bring evil on them, (MISSLES) even my fierce anger,(FIRE) says Yahweh; and I will send the sword after them,(IRANS OFFENSIVE WEAPONS) until I have consumed them; (DESTROYED THEM ALL NUKE SITES,MISSLES ETC)
38 and I will set my throne in Elam,(IRAN WILL BECOME A CHRISTIAN NATION) and will destroy from there king (KHEMENI, ISLAM) and princes, says Yahweh.(IRANIAN ARMY GUARDS)
39 But it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of Elam,(IRAN) says Yahweh.(WERE IN THE LATTER DAYS NOW)

WHEN ARE THE 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS IN ISRAEL IN THE SPRING TIME.(GET READY ISLAM TO BE BIRD SEED FOR THESE BIRDS)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m0bXU5Xqc5M
The 500 million migratory birds in Israel during the spring arrive from Africa and head toward Europe and Asia, with the peak migration occurring in March and April. While migration starts in late February, the most intense movements, particularly of birds of prey, storks, and pelicans, occur during the third week of March and continue into April. 
Key Details on the Spring Migration
Peak Period: Mid-March through April.
Main Migration Route: The birds use the Great Rift Valley, which includes the Hula Valley and Eilat, acting as a "bottleneck" where millions of birds fly through the narrow land bridge.
Best Spots: The Hula Lake Park (Northern Israel) and the Eilat Birding Center (Southern Israel) are primary locations for observing the migration.
Key Species: Hundreds of thousands of white storks, along with black kites, raptors, and pelicans, pass through over these months.
uration: The spring migration runs from late February and continues into June, though the heaviest traffic is in March/April. 

The 500 million migratory birds fly over Israel in the fall between late August and mid-December. The peak migration period for the autumn, when the highest volume of bird traffic occurs, is typically October and November. 
Key Fall Migration Details
Location: The Hula Valley (Agamon Hula Park) in northern Israel is the premier spot to witness this phenomenon.
Timing: Migration starts as early as late June with some waders, but intensifies from mid-August through November.
Peak Festival: The "Annual Hula Valley Bird Festival" is usually held in November to align with the peak migration traffic.
Key Species: Many birds of prey (raptors), including honey buzzards and steppe eagles, cross during this time, along with massive flocks of storks and cranes.
While roughly 500 million birds pass through in the autumn on their way to Africa, the same number crosses again in the spring (mid-February to May) on their way back to Europe and Asia. 

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

I HOPE THIS RUMOUR IS NOT TRUE.THAT AMERICA WANTS AHMINEJAD BACK AS LEADER.HES A MAHDI WORSHIPPER AND ISRAEL HATER.

Early War Goal Was to Install Hard-Line Former President as Iran’s Leader.

An Israeli strike designed to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, U.S. officials said, was part of an effort to bring about regime change and put him in power.By Mark MazzettiJulian E. BarnesFarnaz Fassihi and Ronen BergmanDays after Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials in the opening salvos of the war, President Trump mused publicly that it would be best if “someone from within” Iran took over the country.It turns out that the United States and Israel went into the conflict with a particular and very surprising someone in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president known for his hard-line, anti-Israel and anti-American views.But the audacious plan, developed by the Israelis and which Mr. Ahmadinejad had been consulted about, quickly went awry, according to the U.S. officials who were briefed on it.Mr. Ahmadinejad was injured on the war’s first day by an Israeli strike at his home in Tehran that had been designed to free him from house arrest, the American officials and an associate of Mr. Ahmadinejad said. He survived the strike, they said, but after the near miss he became disillusioned with the regime change plan.He has not been seen publicly since then and his current whereabouts and condition are unknown.To say that Mr. Ahmadinejad was an unusual choice would be a vast understatement. While he had increasingly clashed with the regime’s leaders and had been placed under close watch by the Iranian authorities, he was known during his term as president, from 2005 to 2013, for his calls to “wipe Israel off the map.” He was a strong supporter of Iran’s nuclear program, a fierce critic of the United States and known for violently cracking down on internal dissent.How Mr. Ahmadinejad was recruited to take part remains unknown.The existence of the effort, which has not been previously reported, was part of a multistage plan developed by Israel to topple Iran’s theocratic government. It underscores how Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel went into the war not only misjudging how quickly they could achieve their objectives but also gambling to some degree on a risky plan for leadership change in Iran that even some of Mr. Trump’s aides found implausible. Some American officials were skeptical in particular about the viability of putting Mr. Ahmadinejad back into power.“From the outset, President Trump was clear about his goals for Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles, dismantle their production facilities, sink their navy, and weaken their proxy,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in response to a request for comment about the regime change plan and Ahmadinejad. “The United States military met or exceeded all of its objectives, and now, our negotiators are working to make a deal that would end Iran’s nuclear capabilities for good.”A spokesperson for Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, declined to comment.U.S. officials spoke during the early days of the war about plans developed with Israel to identify a pragmatist who could take over the country. Officials insisted that there was intelligence that some within the Iranian regime would be willing to work with the United States, even if those people couldn’t be described as “moderates.”Mr. Trump was enjoying the success of the raid by U.S. forces to capture Venezuela’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and the willingness of his interim replacement to work with the White House — a model that Mr. Trump appeared to think could be replicated elsewhere.Want to stay updated on what’s happening in Iran and Israel? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.In recent years, Mr. Ahmadinejad has clashed with regime leaders, accusing them of corruption, and rumors have swirled about his loyalties. He was disqualified from numerous presidential elections, his aides were arrested and Mr. Ahmadinejad’s movements were increasingly restricted to his home in the Narmak section of eastern Tehran.That American and Israeli officials saw Mr. Ahmadinejad as a potential leader of a new government in Iran is further evidence that the war in February was launched with the hopes of installing more pliable leadership in Tehran. Mr. Trump and members of his cabinet have said that the goals of the war were narrowly focused on destroying Iran’s nuclear, missile and military capabilities.There are many unanswered questions about how Israel and the United States planned to put Mr. Ahmadinejad in power, and the circumstances surrounding the airstrike that injured him. American officials said that the strike — carried out by the Israeli Air Force — was meant to kill the guards watching over Mr. Ahmadinejad as part of a plan to release him from house arrest.On the first day of the war, Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. The strike at Ayatollah Khamenei’s compound in central Tehran also blew up a meeting of Iranian officials, killing some officials whom the White House had identified as more willing to negotiate over a change in government than their bosses.There were also initial reports at the time in the Iranian media that Mr. Ahmadinejad had been killed in the strike on his home.The strike did not significantly damage Mr. Ahmadinejad’s house at the end of a dead-end street. But the security outpost at the entrance to the street was struck. Satellite imagery shows that building was destroyed.In the days that followed, official news agencies clarified that he had survived but that his “bodyguards” — in actuality Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members who were both guarding him and holding him under house arrest — were killed.An article in The Atlantic in March, citing anonymous associates of Mr. Ahmadinejad, said that the former president had been freed from government confinement after the strike at his house, which the article described as “in effect a jailbreak operation.”After that article, an associate of Mr. Ahmadinejad confirmed to The New York Times that Mr. Ahmadinejad saw the strike as an attempt to free him. The associate said the Americans viewed Mr. Ahmadinejad as someone who could lead Iran, and had the capability to manage “Iran’s political, social and military situation.”Mr. Ahmadinejad would have been able to “play a very important role” in Iran in the near future, the associate said, suggesting that the United States saw him as similar to Delcy Rodriguez, who took power in Venezuela after American forces seized Mr. Maduro and has since worked closely with the Trump administration, the person said.During his presidency, Mr. Ahmadinejad was known both for his hard-line policies and his often outlandish fundamentalist pronouncements, such as his declaration that there was not a single gay person in Iran and his denial of the Holocaust. He spoke at a conference in Tehran called “A World Without Zionism.”Western satirists lampooned these views, and Mr. Ahmadinejad became something of an unwitting pop culture curiosity, even the subject of Saturday Night Live parodies.He also presided over the country at a time when Iran was accelerating the enrichment of uranium it could one day use for making a nuclear bomb should it choose to weaponize its program. An American intelligence assessment in 2007 concluded that Iran had, years earlier, frozen its work on building a nuclear device but was continuing the enrichment of nuclear fuel it could use for a nuclear weapon if it changed its mind.After Mr. Ahmadinejad left office he gradually became something of an open critic of the theocratic government, or at least at odds with Ayatollah Khamenei.Three times — 2017, 2021, and 2024 — Mr. Ahmadinejad tried to run for his previous job, but each time Iran’s Guardian Council, a group of civilian and Islamic jurists, blocked his presidential campaign. Mr. Ahmadinejad has accused senior Iranian officials of corruption or bad governance and become a critic of the government in Tehran. While he never was an overt dissident, the regime began to treat him as a potentially destabilizing element.Mr. Ahmadinejad’s ties to the West are far murkier.In a 2019 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Ahmadinejad praised President Trump and argued for a rapprochement between Iran and the United States.“Mr. Trump is a man of action,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said. “He is a businessman and therefore he is capable of calculating cost-benefits and making a decision. We say to him, let’s calculate the long-term cost-benefit of our two nations and not be shortsighted.”People close to Mr. Ahmadinejad have been accused of having too close ties to the West, or even spying for Israel. Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, Mr. Ahmadinejad’s former chief of staff, was put on trial in 2018 and the judge in the case publicly asked about his links to British and Israeli spy agencies, an accusation publicized by state media.In the past few years Mr. Ahmadinejad has made trips out of Iran that further fueled speculation.In 2023, he traveled to Guatemala and in 2024 and 2025 he went to Hungary, trips detailed by New Lines magazine. Both countries have close ties to Israel.The Hungarian prime minister at the time, Viktor Orban, has a close relationship with Mr. Netanyahu. During the trips to Hungary, Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke at a university connected to Mr. Orban.He returned from Budapest just days before Israel began attacking Iran last June. When that war broke out, he kept a low public profile and posted only few statements on social media. His relative silence about a war with a country that Mr. Ahmadinejad had long viewed as Iran’s main enemy was noted by many on Iranian social media.Discussion of Mr. Ahmadinejad on Iranian social media picked up after reports of his death, according to an analysis by FilterLabs, a company that tracks public sentiment. But the discussion declined in the weeks following, mainly amounting to confusion about his whereabouts.At the outset, Israel envisioned the war unfolding in several phases, starting with air assaults by the United States and Israel plus the killing of Iran’s supreme leaders and the mobilization of Kurds to fight Iranian forces, according to two Israeli defense officials familiar with the operational planning.Then, the Israeli plan foresaw a combination of influence campaigns carried out by Israel and the Kurdish invasion creating political instability in Iran and a sense that the regime was losing control. In a third stage, the regime, under intense political pressure and the weight of damage to key infrastructure like electricity, would collapse, allowing for what the Israelis referred to as an “alternative government” to be established.Other than the air campaign and the killing of the supreme leader, little of the plan played out as the Israelis had hoped, and much of it appears in retrospect to have profoundly misjudged Iran’s resilience and the capacity of the United States and Israel to exert their will.But even after it became clear that Iran’s theocratic government had survived the first months of the war, some Israeli officials continued to express belief in their vision of imposing regime change in Tehran.David Barnea, Mossad’s chief, told associates in several discussions that he still thought that the agency’s plan, based on decades of intelligence collection and operational activity in Iran, had a very good chance of succeeding had it received approval to move forward.Christiaan Triebert contributed research for this article.Mark Mazzetti is an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security, intelligence, and foreign affairs. He has written a book about the C.I.A.Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization. She also covers Iran and has written about conflict in the Middle East for 15 years.Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv.

Alleged IRGC operative charged with plotting to kill German Jewish leader-Prosecutors say Ali S. was arrested in Denmark in June for plots against Josef Schuster, as well as two Jewish grocers and pro-Israel politician; alleged accomplice is in custody By AP and ToI Staff Today, 5:41 pm-MAY 21,26

A man arrested last year has been charged with espionage and attempted participation in murder after an Iranian intelligence agency tasked him with gathering information on the head of Germany’s main Jewish group and three others with a view to carrying out attacks, German prosecutors said Thursday.The suspect, a Danish national identified only as Ali S. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested last June in Denmark. An alleged accomplice, an Afghan national identified as Tawab M., also was arrested there in November. Federal prosecutors said they filed an indictment against the pair at the Hamburg state court on May 7.Ali S. was charged with working as an agent for an intelligence service, acting as a secret agent for purposes of sabotage and attempted participation in murder and arson. Tawab M. was charged with attempted participation in murder.Prosecutors alleged that Ali S. worked for the intelligence service of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and was in close contact with the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force.They said that, at the beginning of 2025, he was tasked with gathering information on the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, and on the head of the German-Israeli Society, prominent former German lawmaker Volker Beck, as well as two Jewish grocers in Berlin whom they didn’t identify.“All this served for the preparation of assassination and arson attacks in Germany,” prosecutors said in a statement.Ali S. scouted out various locations in Berlin last year and sought accomplices for attacks, they added. By May 2025, he was in contact with Tawab M., who allegedly said that he was prepared to procure a weapon for an unidentified third person and arrange for him to try to kill Beck.German newspaper Der Spiegel said Ali S.’s defense attorney vowed to contest the charges against the suspect, while an attorney for Tawab M. declined to comment.After Ali S. was arrested last year, Iran’s ambassador was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry. The Iranian Embassy at the time rejected what it called “unfounded and dangerous allegations” of an apparent plan for an attack on Jewish facilities.In a statement Thursday, the German-Israeli Society said Beck, its president, had been warned for six weeks last summer that “an attack could come at any moment.”The statement quoted Beck as saying that German democracy and Jewish life in the country were under constant threat of attack from Iran and that “this must not go unpunished.”Following Thursday’s indictment, the Society demanded Berlin expel the Iranian ambassador, freeze assets linked to Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and levy sanctions on Iran-linked financial institutions.Diaspora Jewish communities have faced an uptick in attacks since the US and Israel launched war on Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.Authorities have been probing possible Iran links in several of the attacks. Last week, the US Justice Department announced the arrest of a senior commander of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia for plotting what prosecutors said were close to 20 terror attacks on Jewish targets in the US, Europe and Canada during the Iran war.

Trump: Willing to wait few days for ‘right answer’ from Iran-Trump says Netanyahu will ‘do whatever I want’ on Iran after pair said to hold tense call-Revolutionary Guard says its ‘devastating blows will crush’ its ‘American-Zionist enemy’ if Trump resumes strikes, as Pakistani interior minister back in Iran for talks-By Agencies, Nava Freiberg and Jacob Magid-20 May 2026, 3:18 pmUpdated: Today, 3:29 am

US President Donald Trump asserted Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will do “whatever I want” when it comes to a potential military strike on Iran, in remarks made a day after the pair reportedly held a tense call on the subject.Trump was asked by reporters about his Tuesday phone call with the Israeli premier. “He’s a very good man, he’ll do whatever I want him to do. And he’s a great guy… Don’t forget he was a wartime prime minister,” Trump responded.Netanyahu has touted his close relationship with Trump, crediting it for a long list of pro-Israel decisions made by the US president. But it has also exposed Netanyahu to criticism that he is unable to push back on Trump as he has become so indebted to him.Asked by The Times of Israel in March whether he alone would decide when the war with Iran ends or if Netanyahu would also have a say, Trump claimed that it would be a “mutual” decision,” but when a ceasefire was announced several weeks later, Jerusalem was reportedly caught off guard.Trump has still been careful not to criticize Netanyahu and has even lobbied for him to be pardoned by President Isaac Herzog in the ongoing corruption trial that the premier is facing.Netanyahu is seen as supportive of resuming the war against Iran, as he has argued that war aims pertaining to Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs, along with its support for proxies, are still unmet. The premier has said he would accept those issues being address diplomatically but has expressed skepticism over whether Tehran is willing to negotiate in good faith.Axios reported that during their Tuesday phone call, Trump updated Netanyahu on new mediation efforts by several Arab and Muslim states to reach a deal between the US and Iran.The emerging proposal – reportedly drafted by Qatar and Pakistan with input from regional mediators Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt – would see Washington and Tehran sign a “letter of intent” that would officially end the war and open 30 days of negotiations on issues including reopening the Strait of Hormuz and limiting Iran’s nuclear program, a US source involved in the phone call told Axios.The two leaders disagreed on the path forward during the call, as Netanyahu was highly skeptical of the framework, believing the US should continue applying military pressure on Iran to further weaken the regime by destroying its critical infrastructure, two Israeli sources said.The US source said that Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire after the call,” though Israeli sources noted that Netanyahu “is always concerned” about how negotiations with Iran will go, even during stages that previously failed.The Prime Minister’s Office and the White House declined to comment to Axios on the report.Mediators have been working over the last several days to bridge gaps on the last Pakistani proposal, and Qatar recently presented the US and Iran with a new draft, two Arab sources and an Israeli source told Axios, though a fourth Qatari source said there is no separate draft from Qatar and Doha is only aiming to improve the Pakistani draft.The current efforts aim to secure stronger commitments from the Iranians regarding limiting their nuclear program and better guarantees from the US to gradually unfreeze Iranian funds kept abroad, according to the report.Qatar sent a delegation to Tehran earlier this week for talks on the latest draft, as did Pakistan, the report added, while Iran’s Tasnim news agency claimed the US had submitted a new proposal via Pakistani mediators and that Tehran was reviewing the text.Asked by reporters on Wednesday if he is open to a limited Iran deal that would only open the Strait of Hormuz and extend the ceasefire, Trump said he is in no rush to reach an agreement: “We’d have to open the strait that would open immediately, so we’re gonna give this one shot. I’m in no hurry. Everyone is saying, ‘Oh, the midterms.’ I’m in no hurry… Ideally I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot.”Hours earlier, though, he told reporters that the war “will end very quickly.Trump has given vague timelines for reaching a diplomatic solution with Iran, saying Tuesday that he could wait “two or three days” or for “a limited period of time,” after announcing that he canceled a strike planned for Tuesday. In further remarks on Wednesday, he said the US was willing to wait a few days for the “right answer” from Iran, as talks are right “on the borderline.”“It’s right on the borderline, if we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly,” he told reporters just after stepping off Air Force One. “We’re all ready to go.”Trump said “we have to get the right answers [from Iran], so it’d have to be complete 100% good answers, and if we do, we save a lot of time, energy and lives.” He added that it “could be a few days, but it could go very quickly,” claiming the US was dealing with “people that are, I think, far more reasonable than the people that are really no longer with us… so hopefully those people will make a deal that’s going to be great for everyone.”Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued its own warning to Trump on Wednesday, threatening major repercussions if the US resumes the war.“If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you,” said the IRGC, in a statement on its Sepah News website.“The American-Zionist enemy… must know that despite the offensive carried out against us using the full capabilities of the world’s two most expensive armies, we have not deployed the full power of the Islamic revolution,” it continued.On Tuesday, US Vice President JD Vance told reporters that “a lot of good progress is being made” in the efforts to reach a deal, adding, “We’re just going to keep working at it.” At the same time, he warned Iran that the US military was “locked and loaded.”Also Tuesday, the US Senate advanced a war powers resolution, as a fourth Republican joined Democrats in their efforts to assert authority over the conflict, though support for passing the measure remains short of a majority.Amid the tension, Pakistan’s interior minister headed to Iran on Wednesday for the second time this week, Iranian state media reported.“Mohsin Naqvi traveled to Tehran to meet officials from the Islamic Republic,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources in Islamabad.Pakistan has been mediating between Iran and the US, with Naqvi previously in Tehran on Saturday to “facilitate” the process, according to Iranian media.Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, said further hostilities in the Middle East would be “inadvisable,” calling for a ceasefire, as he spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, according to Chinese state media.“A comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important,” Xi told Putin, the Xinhua news agency reported.Germany to send Turkey additional Patriot system-Also amid the war in Iran, Turkey said on Wednesday that Germany would send it a Patriot missile defense system for a six-month deployment from June to replace a system deployed as part of NATO measures in southeast Turkey to bolster air defenses.In March, Ankara said a US Patriot system was deployed to southeast Turkey, near a NATO radar base, in the face of missile threats from Iran. NATO defenses shot down four ballistic missiles launched from Iran during the war.“In addition to the Spanish Patriot air defense system currently deployed in our country, one of the two additional Patriot systems deployed by NATO due to the conflicts between the US, Israel, and Iran will be replaced by a German system,” the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement.“This replacement is planned to be completed in June, and the system is expected to remain operational for approximately six months,” it said, adding that security evaluations will continue in coordination with allies.Jordan shoots down drone, origin unknown-Jordan, meanwhile, announced it had shot down a drone of unknown origin in its airspace on Wednesday. No casualties were reported.“This morning, the Jordanian Armed Forces engaged with a drone of unknown origin that entered Jordanian airspace and was brought down in Jerash Governorate, without any injuries,” the military said of an area located around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital Amman.Though the Iran ceasefire has mostly held, drones have lately been ​launched from Iraq ​toward ⁠Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and ⁠Kuwait, apparently by Iran’s allies.Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they launched the war in late February to curb Iran’s support for regional militias, dismantle its nuclear program, destroy its missile capabilities, and create conditions for Iranians to topple their rulers.Iran responded to the attacks by firing on Israel, US forces, and neighboring Mideast countries. The regime also seized control of the Strait of Hormuz, and the US imposed a blockade on Iranian ships and ports.The war has yet to deprive Iran of its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, though the US and Israel have said it will be removed from the country by force if not through a deal.The Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership, which had faced a mass uprising at the start of the year, has so far withstood the onslaught.

Iran said recovering military abilities faster than expected, producing drones again-China and Russia helped Islamic Republic blow past US intelligence community predictions, sources tell CNN; Pakistani field marshal in Tehran, as regime reviews latest US offer By ToI Staff and Agencies Today, 1:45 pm-MAY 21,26

Iran is rebuilding its military capabilities faster than expected, including by restarting its production of drones, CNN reported Thursday, as Tehran said it was “reviewing” the latest US proposal to end the war.One US official was cited by CNN as saying that Iran could fully restore its pre-war capabilities in as little as six months, saying Tehran has “exceeded all timelines the IC [intelligence community] had for reconstitution.”The shortened timeline is due in part to assistance that Iran has received from Russia and China, the sources told CNN, alleging that Beijing has been supplying the Islamic Republic with missile components since war broke out on February 28.China’s foreign ministry denied this, claiming the CNN report is “not based on facts.”The accelerated pace at which Iran is moving to restore its arsenal and capabilities suggests that it would still be a formidable foe, able to wreak havoc on the region should the US make good on repeated threats to begin its military campaign anew, the sources said.US Central Command declined to comment on the report, and a Pentagon spokesman insisted that the US military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the president’s choosing.”Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the Islamic Republic was examining Washington’s latest offer for a deal to end the war, while repeating Tehran’s demands for the release of its assets frozen abroad and an end to a US naval blockade, imposed amid the ceasefire in response to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.The army chief of mediator Pakistan was due in Iran on Thursday for “talks and consultations” with Iranian authorities, according to Iranian media.The reported visit by Field Marshal Asim Munir, a powerful figure with a growing role in Pakistan’s foreign relations, came a day after US President Donald Trump warned that negotiations to end the war were on the “borderline” between a deal and renewed strikes.Munir was at the center of the action during the only direct negotiations to take place since the war started. Those failed, with Iran accusing the US of making “excessive demands.”Since then, the two sides have sent to each other multiple proposals, with the threat of renewed war looming all along.“It’s right on the borderline, believe me,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “If we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go.”He said a deal could come “very quickly” or “in a few days”, but warned Tehran would have to provide “100 percent good answers.”Tehran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Wednesday accused Washington of seeking to restart the war, while warning of a “forceful response” if Iran is attacked.“The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said.Iran’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority said in a post on X that there would be a “controlled maritime zone” at the Strait of Hormuz.The authority, which was set to manage the strait, set the zone as the “line connecting Kuh-e Mobarak in Iran and southern Fujairah in the UAE at the eastern side of the strait, to the line connecting the end of Qeshm Island in Iran and Umm Al Quwain in the UAE at the western side of the strait.”It said transit through the area to pass through the strait would require coordination and authorization from the authority.United Arab Emirates’ presidential adviser Anwar Gargash responded to the announcement in a post on X, calling it an infringement on the UAE’s sovereignty.“The regime is trying to establish a new reality born from a clear military defeat, but attempts to control the Strait of Hormuz or infringe on the UAE’s maritime sovereignty are nothing but pipe dreams,” he wrote.Meanwhile, IRNA reported on Thursday that 20 Iranian sailors who were on board a vessel seized by the US off the coast of Singapore have returned home after diplomatic efforts between the Iranian foreign minister and his Pakistani and Singaporean counterparts.Amid the tension with the US, Iran executed two people on Wednesday, according to the country’s Tasnim news agency, which identified the two as Ramin Zaleh and Karim Maroufpour.The men were accused of creating a group to disrupt the country’s security and having membership in a “terrorist” organization, Tasnim said.Iran is the world’s second-most prolific executioner, after China, according to rights groups. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights says the Islamic Republic executed at least 1,500 people last year, one of the highest numbers worldwide.Israel and the US launched a war against the Iranian regime at the end of February, with a shaky ceasefire in place since April 8.Since the start of the conflict, Iran has ramped up executions, particularly in cases involving alleged espionage or security-related charges.

Iranian sources say regime has decided to keep highly enriched uranium in Iran, defying Trump-Khamenei said to refuse to give up stockpile of near-weapons grade nuclear material, which US and Israel have demanded be confiscated before war can end By Reuters Today, 2:47 pm-MAY 21,26

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iran’s supreme leader has issued a directive that the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources have said, hardening Tehran’s stance on one of the main US demands at peace talks.Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s order could further frustrate US President Donald Trump and complicate talks on ending the US-Israeli war on Iran.Israeli officials have told Reuters that Trump has assured Israel that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, needed to make an atomic weapon, will be sent out of Iran and that any peace deal must include a clause on this.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not consider the war over until enriched uranium is removed from Iran, Tehran ends its support for proxy terror groups, and its ballistic missile capabilities are eliminated.“The Supreme Leader’s directive, and the consensus within the establishment, is that the stockpile of enriched uranium should not leave the country,” said one of the two Iranian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.Iran’s top officials, the sources said, believe that sending the material abroad would leave the country more vulnerable to future attacks by the United States and Israel. Khamenei officially has the last say on the most important state matters, but he is believed to be increasingly sidelined, staying out of sight after he reportedly suffered considerable injuries in a US-Israeli strike earlier this year.The White House and Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.A shaky ceasefire is in place in the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, after which Iran fired at Gulf states hosting US military bases and fighting broke out between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.But there has been no big breakthrough in peace efforts, with a US blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global oil supply route, complicating negotiations mediated by Pakistan.The two senior Iranian sources said there was deep suspicion in Iran that the pause in hostilities was a tactical deception by Washington to create a sense of security before it renews airstrikes.Iran’s top peace negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Wednesday that “obvious and hidden moves by the enemy” showed the Americans were preparing new attacks.Trump said on Wednesday the US was ready to proceed with further attacks on Tehran if Iran did not agree to a peace deal, but suggested Washington could wait a few days to “get the right answers.”The two sides have started to narrow some gaps, the sources said, but deeper splits remain over Tehran’s nuclear program — including ‌the fate of its enriched uranium stockpiles and Tehran’s demand for recognition of its right to enrichment.Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran’s priority is to secure a permanent end to the war and credible guarantees that the US and Israel will not launch further attacks.Only after such assurances are in place, they said, would Iran be prepared to engage in detailed negotiations over its nuclear program.Tehran has long denied seeking a nuclear bomb, but it has enriched uranium to levels far beyond what’s needed for civilian use, while obstructing inspectors and regularly vowing to destroy the State of Israel.Before the war, Iran signaled willingness to ship out half of its stockpile of uranium, which has been enriched to 60 percent, a short step away from weapons-grade enrichment.But sources said that the position changed after repeated threats from Trump to strike Iran.Israeli officials have told Reuters it is still unclear whether Trump will decide to attack and whether he would give Israel a green light to resume operations. Tehran has vowed a crushing response if attacked.However, the source said there were “feasible formulas” to resolve the matter.“There are solutions like diluting the stockpile under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” one of the Iranian sources said.The IAEA estimates that Iran ​had 440.9 kg of ⁠uranium enriched to 60% when Israel and the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. How much of that has survived is unclear.IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in March that what remained of that stock was “mainly” stored in a tunnel complex in its Isfahan nuclear facility, and that his agency believed slightly more than 200 kg ⁠of it was ​there. The IAEA also believes some is at the sprawling nuclear complex at Natanz, where Iran had two ​enrichment plants.Iran says some highly enriched uranium is needed for medical purposes and for ​a research reactor in Tehran that runs on relatively small amounts of uranium enriched to around 20%.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Board of Peace envoy urges UNSC ‘to use every means at its disposal’ to disarm Hamas-Mladenov warns that if ceasefire falls apart, current division of Gaza could become permanent; Palestinians say boy, 13, killed in IDF strike; army says it targeted people approaching Yellow Line By Reuters and ToI Staff Today, 8:47 pm-MAY 21,26

The Board of Peace’s lead envoy for Gaza called on the UN Security Council on Thursday “to use every means at its disposal” to press Hamas to disarm, warning that failure to do so could see the enclave’s current division could become permanent.US President Donald Trump set up the Board of Peace to oversee his ambitious plan to end Israel’s two-year war in Gaza that was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, and rebuild the shattered territory.But its implementation has stalled, with Hamas refusing to lay down arms and Israel maintaining troops in a large swathe of Gaza representing around 60% of the 365-square-kilometre (140-square-mile) enclave. Even before the war, the territory was one of the most densely populated places in the world.“The risk is that the deteriorating status quo becomes permanent – a divided Gaza, Hamas holding military and administrative control over 2 million people across less than half the territory,” Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, told the Security Council in New York.He said this would lead to another generation of Gazans living in tents and preclude Israeli security and any viable path to Palestinian statehood. “This is a version of the future that Israelis, Palestinians and the region should all fear and all mobilise to avoid,” he said.His report to the New York body said that Hamas’ refusal to hand over weapons and relinquish control was the “principal obstacle” to implementation. He also recognised continuing Israeli ceasefire violations and deadly strikes while acknowledging a funding gap.“Reconstruction financing will not follow where weapons have not been laid down. No investment, no movement, no horizon,” Mladenov told the body, which has recognised the board, although not all major powers have joined.Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said Mladenov’s remarks were an “attempt to create justifications for the occupation’s escalation against the people of the Gaza Strip and for tightening the siege imposed on them.”Aid groups say humanitarian supplies into Gaza remain constrained despite guarantees of increased assistance under the ceasefire.Boy killed-Mladenov’s comments come as violence continued in the Strip despite the ceasefire.The Israel Defense Forces said troops operating in northern Gaza killed a suspect  after he crossed the Yellow Line and approached soldiers in a “manner that posed an immediate threat.”According to the military, soldiers of the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade identified the suspect as he was carrying out “suspicious activity” before targeting him.However, Hamas-run health officials said that the strike killed a 13-year-old boy.Medics said the boy was killed and others wounded when an Israeli drone dropped a grenade in the town of Beit Lahiya.The IDF later said that an inquiry indicated the minor was with the person its troops had struck.Israel says its post-ceasefire strikes are aimed at preventing attacks or stopping people from approaching its armistice line with Hamas.Evacuation warnings-Gaza residents say Israeli forces have in recent days resumed issuing evacuation orders ahead of strikes. Witnesses reported at least three such warnings in the past two days, targeting two homes and a tent encampment.The orders came at night, forcing dozens of families to flee in the darkness, they said.On Tuesday, the military ordered displaced families at a tent encampment in the densely populated Mawasi area in Khan Younis to leave before striking a tent, witnesses said. It issued a similar warning in the Bureij camp in northern Gaza before bombing a house, according to witnesses.Ibrahim Ismail, 60, said that on Wednesday night, the army ordered him and several families to evacuate their four-storey apartment building in central Gaza before bombing it. Nearby homes were also damaged, and two people were injured, he said.On Thursday morning, residents of the area rushed to check on their homes, sifting through the wreckage for whatever items and clothes they could save. Others used a bulldozer to clear roads of rubble from houses damaged or destroyed in the Israeli air strike.“Look. You work for 30 years and, in five minutes, everything is gone. Don’t speak of a ceasefire or truce — it’s all lies. War is war,” Ismail said.Israel’s military did not immediately provide comment on the orders telling people to flee. In the past, it has said that the orders aim to prevent civilian harm when targeting terror groups. It has not said why it might have resumed issuing such orders in Gaza.

Queen was keen to make Andrew a UK trade envoy, files released in Epstein probe show-Document from 2000 confirms Elizabeth II had a soft spot for her second son, who was stripped of his royal titles last year over his ties to the late financier and sex offender By AP Today, 6:50 pm-MAY 21,26

LONDON — The late Queen Elizabeth II was “very keen” for former Prince Andrew to be named Britain’s trade envoy in 2001, according to documents released Thursday that showed his appointment received little scrutiny from government ministers.The UK government released confidential papers related to the appointment in response to legislation passed by Parliament after lawmakers accused the king’s brother of putting his friendship with financier sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ahead of the nation.The former prince was stripped of his royal titles, including Duke of York, last year and is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.“The Queen is very keen that the Duke of York should take on a prominent role in the promotion of national interests,” the head of Britain’s trade body wrote to two senior cabinet ministers on February 25, 2000.The queen worried about her son-The involvement of the late queen confirms previously held beliefs that the monarch had a soft spot for her second son, which may have influenced her lack of decisiveness in dealing with allegations about his links to Epstein.Royal commentators have for years suggested that the queen should have moved quicker to remove her son from royal duties, and her failure to do so tarnished the monarchy.Mountbatten-Windsor served as Britain’s special envoy for international trade from 2001 to 2011, when he was forced to give up the role because of concerns about his links to questionable figures in Libya and Azerbaijan.If nothing else, the documents suggest Elizabeth worried about him, said Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law and the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London.“It’s like, in a sense, if the queen makes it clear that that’s her wish, that’s the end of the argument,” Prescott said. “Her Majesty’s civil service, as it was then, would have to deal with it on that basis.”UK lawmakers approved a motion in February demanding publication of the documents after the former prince was arrested and questioned for several hours on allegations he shared government reports with Epstein while he was trade envoy.Documents suggest Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed with little due diligence-British Trade Minister Chris Bryant said in a written statement to lawmakers that “we have found no evidence that a formal due diligence or vetting process was undertaken” before Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed to the role of special trade envoy.“There is also no evidence that this was considered. This is understandable since this new appointment was a continuation of the royal family’s involvement in trade and investment promotion work following the Duke of Kent’s decision to relinquish his duties as Vice-Chairman of the Overseas Trade Board,” he said.He said that the government was cooperating with Thames Valley Police on their investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor and possible misconduct in public office.Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles late last year as the US Justice Department prepared to release millions of pages of documents related to its investigation of Epstein.Those files showed how the wealthy financier used an international web of rich, powerful friends to gain influence and sexually exploit young women and girls.Nowhere has the fallout from the document release been felt more strongly than in the UK, where the scandal has raised questions about the way power is wielded by the aristocracy, senior politicians and influential business owners, known collectively as “the Establishment.”Mountbatten-Windsor has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.Officials did suggest not offering the former prince golf trips-There were hints, however, that some had misgivings about giving Mountbatten-Windsor the high-profile trade role, where his effectiveness relied on his credibility. The back and forth suggested that while officials may not have questioned his appointment, they were involved in making suggestions about what he shouldn’t be allowed to do in the role.Kathryn Colvin, head of protocol at the Foreign Office, wrote in a January 2000 memo that Andrew’s private secretary “asked that the Duke of York should not be offered golfing functions abroad. This was a private activity and if he took his clubs with him he would not play in any public sense.”Another document, a government memo sent to UK trade staff around the world, warned that Mountbatten-Windsor’s “high public profile” will require “careful and sometimes strict media management.”

 Events held on anniversary of revered Imam Ali's wedding-Iran stages mass weddings for couples pledging to sacrifice lives in war with US, Israel-Hundreds of couples marry across Tehran; more than 100 arrive at capital’s Imam Hossein Square in military jeeps with mounted machine guns, are married on stage by cleric By AFP 19 May 2026, 7:31 pm

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian authorities held mass public weddings in Tehran for couples who signed up to a state-sponsored scheme declaring their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the war against the US and Israel.The ceremonies conducted late on Monday involved hundreds of couples in several major squares in the capital, including more than 100 in the vast Imam Hossein Square in central Tehran, according to reports in Iranian media.They were broadcast on state TV in a bid to boost wartime morale, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening new military action against Iran amid a shaky ceasefire which halted the fighting that began on February 28.Those involved had signed up, according to Iranian media, for the so-called “self-sacrifice” scheme (janfada in Persian) where people pledged to put their lives on the line in the war by, for example, forming human chains outside power stations.Iranian authorities say millions of people, including top figures such as the speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and President Masoud Pezeshkian, have put their names forward.Couples arrived at the Imam Hossein Square in military jeeps with mounted machine guns and were married on a stage in a ceremony presided over by a cleric, AFP images showed.A couple held a wedding ceremony among government supporters during a street rally in Tehran, according to a video sent to Iran International. pic.twitter.com/KB0ulJjvr9 — Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) May 19, 2026-The stage was festooned with balloons and with a giant image of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since being elevated to the position after the killing of his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war.“Certainly, the country is at war, but young people also have the right to marry,” one young woman in a white Islamic bridal dress, who was not named, said beside her groom in footage published by the Mehr news agency.A man in a dark suit, beside his bride-to-be, said they were happy the occasion marked the anniversary of the marriage of Imam Ali, revered by Shia Muslims, to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed.“We received their blessings. Furthermore, we came to offer our best wishes to the people in the streets,” he said.Mehr said 110 couples had taken part in the Imam Hossein Square ceremony alone. The AFP images showed crowds of well-wishers clasping roses and looking on.Since the start of the war, Iranian authorities have held, on a near-daily basis, major pro-government gatherings in a bid to highlight popular mobilization amid the conflict.Israel launched its campaign against Iran, alongside the US, to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “create the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.The ceasefire declared by Trump in April came with core declared goals of the war unfulfilled.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH) (DO NOT EVER LISTEN TO ANYBODY THAT SAYS THE WORLD IS ENDING.ITS NEVER GONNA HAPPEN-4 BILLION WILL BE LEFT ON EARTH TO GO INTO JESUS" 1000 YEAR RULE)(THAT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE THE END OF THE WORLD TO ANY ONE, DOES IT-NOT ME.THE EARTH IS JUST RENOVATED.NEVER ENDED.

REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

WORLD TERRORISM

GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.(CAN YOU SAY TORNADOES,HURRICANES,VOLCANOES,EARTH QUAKES,LANDSLIDES,FLASH FLOODING,EXPLOSIONS,SNOW STORMS,THEN FINALLY NUKESAND ANY OTHER JUDGEMENTS THE EARTH CAN VOMIT THE SINNERS OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH WITH.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

2 Peter 3:6-7 Amplified Bible (AMP) (HOT SUN, NUKES ETC)
6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 
7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON THE MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS-PROPHECY SIGNS) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)

ISAIAH 14:12-14
12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14  I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

Joel 3:2-King James Version (YOU DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF - YOUR POKING GOD IN THE EYE - GOD SAYS AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH- YOU WANNA DIVIDE JERUSALEM IN HALF -  HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION 4 BILLION DIE ON EARTH.
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

LUKE 19:40
40 And He answered and said unto them, “I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Analysis Runoff election next week to decide Galindo's candidacy-Texas Dem’s vow to castrate Zionists highlights anti-Israel turmoil in US politics-Congressional candidate’s call to imprison ‘American Zionists’ draws outrage from other Democrats, as lines continue to blur between right and left, Israel criticism and antisemitism By Luke Tress-Today, 5:04 pm-MAY 21,26

A Texas congressional candidate’s call to imprison and castrate “Zionists” rocked her Democratic party this week, as lawmakers expressed alarm and decried antisemitism in politics.Two Democrats — US Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Jared Moskowitz — said in a joint statement that if the candidate, Maureen Galindo, enters Congress, “We will force a vote to expel her every single day.”Every Democrat in Congress signed onto a joint statement saying her “vile, bigoted and antisemitic views” were anathema to the party.Galindo’s anti-Jewish rhetoric is not an isolated incident, though, but highlights the mess surrounding Israel, Jews, and anti-Zionism that has become endemic in American politics.Galindo won a primary in March in Texas’s 35th Congressional District, around San Antonio, with 29% of the vote, beating her rival, Johnny Garcia, who had 27%. The party’s candidacy will be decided in a runoff election next week.Her campaign made the vow to imprison Zionists in an Instagram post last week that circulated widely on Tuesday.“She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking. (It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists),” the campaign said.In other recent statements, Galindo railed against “Zionist billionaire Jews,” blamed Israel for immigration enforcement in the US, demanded treason charges against politicians linked to Israel, and said that Zionists control the media.Unlike other anti-Zionists in US politics, Galindo often refers to “Zionist Jews.” She also attacks Christian Zionists, but is overwhelmingly focused on Israel.She views Zionists as a malevolent, controlling force, and as a threat, both hallmarks of antisemitism.She said of her opponent, “He’s funded by the Zionists who control San Antonio. I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but we have the Epstein files now.”Same message, new package-Her statements reflect a hodgepodge of antisemitic, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel views, echoing the far left, the far right and anti-Israel sources in the Middle East, sometimes blending the different influences into a single statement.“They run the Epstein networks and they control DHS, because that was the whole point of DHS and ICE, was for the Israelis to occupy America,” she said earlier this month.Tying US law enforcement to Israel is common on the far left — see New York’s Zohran Mamdani saying that “when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF” — while the allegation that Zionists are occupying the US is more common on the far right. White supremacists refer to Washington as the “ZOG,” or the “Zionist Occupied Government.”“This is an Israeli occupation of America,” she said in a radio interview.Galindo has also said she is “concerned, though, about the genocide that Israel is doing and they might try to bring it here, too,” bringing together the left’s genocide allegations in Gaza with the far right’s portrayal of Jews as an existential threat to the US.Galindo also draws from Middle East anti-Israel sources. After coming under criticism this week, she posted a video of the former spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, Ghassan Kanafani, in her defense. She has cited Al Jazeera documentaries as a source of information and commemorated the Palestinian Nakba Day.Much of her rhetoric is grounded in the left, like calling Zionists “genocidal colonizers” perpetrating “crimes against humanity,” framing the conflict as a struggle for indigenous rights, blaming Israel for health care woes in the US, and attacking companies tied to Israel like Caterpillar.Her references to a cabal of “Zionist billionaire Jews,” “the synagogue of Satan,” and “all of the Jews who own Hollywood” are more classic, run-of-the-mill antisemitism.Her mixed rhetoric reflects how anti-Zionist talking points are increasingly crossing over between the left and right, marking a rare point of convergence. Tucker Carlson sometimes sounds like a progressive academic while accusing Israel of genocide and murdering journalists. A recent video by Canary Mission shows the hard left Ana Kasparian and the far right Nick Fuentes issuing nearly identical statements about Israel. Anti-Zionist ideas also have a history of traveling between the different camps.Galindo has stepped up her anti-Zionist rhetoric in recent weeks. Earlier in her campaign, she mentioned Israel, but she was more focused on domestic issues like housing, opposition to the Trump administration and immigration. Her February campaign announcement made no mention of Israel or Zionism. In more recent appearances, though, in social media posts, interviews and campaign events, nearly every statement involves Israel.She repeatedly says she is not antisemitic, only anti-Zionist. She views anti-Zionist Jews as the “real Jews,” and accuses Zionist Jews of antisemitism.“Semites are indigenous people to the Middle East and Northern Africa region. Zionists are European colonizers to Israel. They are the antisemites,” she said.Despite Galindo’s disavowals of antisemitism, her vow to imprison and castrate Zionists went too far for Democrats who are normally comfortable with anti-Zionism.“This bigoted garbage and antisemitism should be nowhere near our politics,” said New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Jewish Democrats in Congress weren’t buying Galindo’s distinction either.“Her ever-increasing hateful rhetoric, most recently threatening to put Jews into concentration camps, merits no safe harbor anywhere in American politics,” said the joint statement from all Jewish Democratic members of Congress.Not the only bigot in politics-Galindo’s statements were not the only Israel-related controversy in US politics on Tuesday. Chris Rabb, an anti-Israel progressive who shared a post that said the Bondi Beach massacre was a false flag by “Zionists,” won his primary in Pennsylvania. (Rabb later disavowed the post and said it was shared by a former staffer.)On the other side of the spectrum, anti-Israel US Rep. Thomas Massie, conceding in a primary race, said he was unable to congratulate his opponent immediately because his rival was “in Tel Aviv.”Adding to the imbroglio, Galindo is reportedly receiving funding from a Republican-linked super PAC, apparently to boost the weaker Democratic party candidate in the race.Jewish Democrats and party leaders laced into Republicans for allegedly assisting Galindo.“They are deliberately elevating one of the most grotesque antisemites in American politics this cycle because they think it helps them win,” the Democratic Majority for Israel said.In response to the controversy, Galindo on Wednesday said, “When I say that I want billionaire Zionists in prison, that does not mean I want Jews in internment camps, so why am I getting a whole bunch of death threats and MAGA insults?”“I realize MAGA and Jewish Zionists apparently are the exact same people, they talk the exact same way,” she said. “They want to create a religion state in the United States of America… the goal of Zionism is to create these white supremacist religion states.”“You’re a danger to humanity and belong in prison,” she said.None of Galindo’s ideas are new. The Nazis threw Jews into camps where some were castrated or sterilized, viewed Jews as a genocidal threat to their society, and portrayed Jews as pedophiles. Many leftist anti-Zionist ideas, such as portraying anti-Zionism as separate from antisemitism, were promulgated by a Soviet propaganda campaign in the mid-20th century. Galindo’s claim that Jews are Europeans echoes the debunked Khazar hypothesis. Anti-Zionist protesters often chant for the purge of Zionists and call Jewish passersby “pedophiles.”Galindo brings all these strands, from past eras and different ideologies, together in a single candidate.An aberration or a harbinger? It remains to be seen whether Galindo is an aberration or a harbinger in US politics, as the lines continue to blur between anti-Zionism, antisemitism and Israel-related conspiracies, and between hostility to Israel on the right and the left. The window of acceptable Israel-related discourse in US politics has already moved miles since the start of the Gaza war.It isn’t even clear why Galindo’s call to imprison Zionists provoked such a reaction from Democrats, and not her earlier statements, or other antisemitic controversies in the party, such as Graham Platner’s Nazi tattoo or Abdul El-Sayed’s equivocations about Iran, Hamas and an attack on a Michigan synagogue.Even Hasan Piker, a hardline leftist and cheerleader for anti-Zionist candidates, expressed confusion at Galindo while viewing her comments for the first time on a livestream.“I’ve just never encountered something like this, where there’s certain things that she says, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s awesome,’ and other things that she says, where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s insane,'” Piker said. “I don’t know what to say about it.

”Iranian official: No deal yet, but gaps have narrowed-Rubio says Iran talks show ‘good signs,’ but Hormuz tolls would make deal ‘unfeasible’Trump has ‘other options’ if talks fail, says Rubio, as US president vows to retrieve, possibly destroy Iran’s highly enriched uranium; IDF chief says military ‘on highest alert’ over holiday By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 11:21 pm-MAY 21,26

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that there were “good signs” for a deal to end the war with Iran, but that an agreement would be “unfeasible” if Tehran pursues its plan to toll ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Israel, meanwhile, remained at the highest level of alert over the possibility that fighting could resume.Rubio told reporters in Miami that while US President Donald Trump prefers diplomacy to war, there are “other options” if talks reach a dead end.“The president’s preference is to do a good deal. That’s his preference. It’s always been his preference. If we can get a good deal done, that would be great,” Rubio said. “But if we can’t get a good deal, the president’s been clear he has other options.”“I believe the Pakistanis will be traveling to Tehran today, so hopefully that’ll advance this further,” said Rubio, referring to a possible visit to Tehran on Thursday by Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir, a key mediator.“There are some good signs, but I don’t want to be overly optimistic,” Rubio said. “Let’s see what happens over the next few days.”Asked about Iran’s scheme to impose tolls in the blockaded strait, Rubio said: “No one is in favor of a tolling system, it can’t happen, it would be unacceptable and it would make a diplomatic deal unfeasible.”“It’s a threat to the world if they were to try to do that, and it’s completely illegal by the way,” he added.Rubio also accused NATO allies of having gone “into hiding” while the US struck Iran’s ballistic missiles, even though the Islamic Republic possesses missiles that can reach Europe but not the US.Trump was “not asking them to commit troops. He’s not asking them to send their fighter jets in. But they refuse to do anything,” Rubio said. “We were very upset about that.”A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Thursday that no deal has been reached with the US, but gaps have been narrowed, adding that Iran’s uranium enrichment and Tehran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz remain among the sticking points.Israel on the highest alert-The US and Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.Iran responded with missile and drone strikes across the region and by imposing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil shipments.The fighting entered a truce on April 8. Negotiations to end the war have faltered over Iran’s nuclear program and the post-war control of the Strait of Hormuz, where the US launched its own blockade on Iran-linked shipping on April 13.Amid the possibility that talks would collapse, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Thursday that the military would remain on highest alert over the day-long Shavuot holiday, which began Thursday at sundown.“Even during the Shavuot holiday, the IDF remains on the highest level of alert and continues to operate decisively across all fronts, with high readiness and full preparedness for any mission,” Zamir said in remarks published by the military from a visit to wounded soldiers.At the White House, meanwhile, Trump said of the Strait of Hormuz that “we want it free; we don’t want tolls.”Trump made the comment at a press conference where he announced the loosening of federal rules on greenhouse gases from cooling equipment, in a bid to counter inflation triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.We are not going to let them have it-During the press conference, Trump repeated his vows to extract Iran’s highly enriched uranium and prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear arms.A nuclear Iran would lead to “nuclear war in the Middle East, and that war will come here, that war will go to Europe — we can’t let that happen, and it won’t happen,” said Trump. “I can think of nothing that’s more important than the fact that we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”While Iran, whose leaders are sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies seeking nuclear weapons, it has amassed uranium enriched to nearly weapons-grade levels with no peaceful application.Roughly 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of the highly enriched material is believed to have been buried following US strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-day Israel-Iran war last June.“We’re gonna get it one way or the other, they’re not gonna have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of Iran’s highly enriched uranium.Responding to a separate question on the highly enriched uranium, Trump said: “We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it.”The comments came after two senior Iranian sources cited by Reuters said the country’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has issued a directive that the country’s highly enriched uranium should not be sent abroad, hardening Iran’s stance on a central US demand in talks to end the war.Meanwhile, US intelligence indicates Iran was rebuilding its military at a faster pace than initially expected, CNN reported.Stav Levaton contributed to this report.

US sanctions Lebanese lawmakers, security officials over Hezbollah influence-Move marks first time US has sanctioned sitting Lebanese state security officials, alleging they gave ‘illicit support’ and intelligence to terror group By AP and ToI Staff Today, 10:30 pm-MAY 21,26

WASHINGTON  — A group of Hezbollah-affiliated parliamentarians, state security officials and allies of the terror group were hit with US sanctions Thursday, for allegedly seeking to preserve the Iran-backed group’s influence over Lebanese state institutions and obstruct disarmament efforts.It’s the first time Washington has sanctioned sitting Lebanese state security officials, one from the country’s General Security agency and the other from the military intelligence, both of them accused of providing Hezbollah with “illicit support” and intelligence during the ongoing conflict.The announcement comes as pressure mounts on Beirut to take more decisive action in disarming the group.Included in Thursday’s sanctions are former cabinet minister and senior Hezbollah official Mohammed Fneish, senior Hezbollah parliamentarians Hassan Fadlallah, Ibrahim al-Moussawi and Hussein Hajj Hassan. All have pushed against efforts for disarmament.Mohammad Reza Sheibani, the Iranian Ambassador-designate to Lebanon — who was ordered to leave Beirut by Lebanon’s foreign ministry — was also hit with sanctions.The US Treasury Department accuses the men of undermining Lebanon’s ability to disarm the Iranian-backed Shiite terror organization.The announcement comes as Lebanese and Israeli officials continue holding low-level talks in Washington in a bid to end the monthslong war between Israel and Hezbollah that flared up again after Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in support of Iran.Military officials from both sides are expected to hold their first direct talks in the Pentagon on May 29 as Israel mounts pressure on Lebanon to disarm the powerful group, and Beirut urges Israel to end its daily airstrikes and to withdraw its troops from large swaths of southern Lebanon.Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon on Tuesday killed at least 19 people, including four women and three children, Lebanon’s health ministry said.Hezbollah has dismissed the ongoing talks, instead backing Iran’s talks with the US mediated by Pakistan. It rejects calls, both locally and internationally, for its disarmament. Lebanon’s president and prime minister in early 2025 came to power on a reformist platform vowing to disarm all non-state groups, including Hezbollah. Washington and Israel have been critical of the slow process, but the authorities fear a more confrontational approach could risk armed conflict in the tiny Mediterranean country.The sanctions announced Thursday deny the parties access to any property or financial assets held in the US. It’s unclear what kind of ties they have with the US financial system.Hezbollah has been designated a “foreign terrorist organization” under the authority of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act since 1997.“Treasury will continue to take action against officials who have infiltrated the Lebanese government,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, adding that Hezbollah has waged a “senseless campaign of violence against the Lebanese people.”

Demand soars for Israel’s weapons tech, even among countries claiming to boycott Jewish state-Sales of battle-tested Israeli arms more than doubled over past 5 years, hitting record of nearly $15 billion in 2024, including to states that publicly avoid deals with Jerusalem By AP and ToI Staff Today, 3:03 pm-MAY 21,26

When Israeli defense officials approached Massivit last year about using its unique 3D printers to make military drone parts, CEO Yossi Azarzar jumped at the chance.Although the Israeli company had been producing large set pieces and other designs for the likes of Disney, DreamWorks and Netflix, the opportunity to instead quickly churn out large drone parts for the military was too good to ignore.“I stopped thinking about Hollywood sets,” Azarzar said. “The entertainment industry is a nice customer — defense is a necessity.”Business has been booming for the country’s arms sector, despite widespread condemnation of the country’s campaigns in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran in the years since the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish state triggered a regional war.Countries that have vowed to shun Israeli weapons makers are nonetheless quietly placing orders, according to industry officials. And manufacturers, including some like Massivit with no previous military know-how, can show that their innovations are being continually combat-tested and improved.According to the Defense Ministry, Israeli weapons sales have more than doubled over the past five years, with a record high of nearly $15 billion in 2024. While the ministry hasn’t released overall 2025 figures, leading Israeli weapons makers, including Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries, both reported double-digit sales growth last year.More than half of the Israeli arms industry’s sales are for missiles, rockets and air-defense systems. For the first time, Israel has surpassed the United Kingdom in its share of global arms exports, making it the world’s seventh-biggest supplier, according to a March report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the [army] and defense industries… The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz.Solid sales, despite public criticism-This year’s Defense Tech Expo in Tel Aviv reflected the growing international interest in Israeli weapons, with manufacturers promoting arms and other equipment shaped by the country’s recent conflicts.But it also highlighted the tension between showcasing the military technology and the political debate surrounding its use, with event protesters decrying the widespread destruction in Gaza as an alleged testing lab for Israeli weapons.Last year, Spain canceled a deal for anti-tank missile systems sold by an Israeli company’s subsidiary. Slovenia, meanwhile, announced it would ban the import, export and transit of all weapons to and from Israel in response to the country’s actions in Gaza.Israel says it uses its equipment to defend the country and its people, and denies that it uses battlefields as testing grounds.Human rights activists claim Israel has deployed new weapons and technology during the war in Gaza, pointing to AI, big data and targeting.“The regional war has drawn heavily on Israel’s deadly playbook and provided a boon to Israeli and other defense and technology companies able to parlay the use of their products in Gaza to attract more business,” charged Omar Shakir, the executive director of DAWN, a US-based group founded by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi that pushes for human rights in the Middle East.Despite criticism that Israel’s weapons sector is profiting off technologies being used and improved on the battlefield, it’s hardly alone, according to experts.“Countries have had to dramatically increase defenses because of the proliferation of global conflicts and they need systems that will work. And most countries don’t have the time right now to build their own defense systems locally and quickly,” said Seth J. Frantzman, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who has covered Israel’s arms industry for a decade and wrote the book “Drone Wars.”A lot of countries are looking to Israel because they’re seeing in real time that these are munitions and systems that work, he said.A doubling of inquiries on drone parts amid Iran war-For Massivit, sales have soared since it pivoted to making drone parts for the military, including a 200% rise in inquiries from interested buyers since Israel and the US attacked Iran at the end of February, according to Azarzar.The company’s unique 3D printing technology allows it to make large parts for military drones within days instead of weeks. In addition to selling to the Israeli military, the company’s technology has drawn interest from the defense and aeronautical sectors in Europe, the US, Southeast Asia and India, he said.Business has also been good for other defense contractors.Tomer Malchi, co-founder and CEO of ASIO, said Israeli army orders for the company’s rugged smartphone unit, the Orion, have surged by 400% since Hamas’s attack in 2023 started the war in Gaza.The phones use maps, augmentation and artificial intelligence to help soldiers plan missions, navigate and respond to real-time battlefield threats. ASIO recently signed a deal with a major US defense company and is in talks with about 20 other countries, Malchi said.One area the Defense Ministry says will be a future priority for innovation is taking down drones, which has proven challenging during the war with Iran. Drones are hard to pinpoint on radar systems calibrated for spotting high-speed missiles and can be mistaken for birds or planes.Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), a local weapons maker, has developed a system to help soldiers more accurately shoot down tactical drones. At a shooting range in central Israel, an IWI instructor fired rounds at a makeshift drone to show how the system works. A computer chip is embedded into a soldier’s rifle, providing more accuracy and efficiency and significantly reducing the influence of fatigue and other factors by allowing the trigger to remain pressed.The system, known as Arbel, came to market in 2024 and now has more than two dozen countries using it, said Semion Dukhan, head of Europe for IWI.Among IWI’s buyers are countries that have said publicly that they won’t do deals with Israel, Dukhan said, though he wouldn’t name them.“People and politicians say things they need to say… what they say is not necessarily what is going on underneath the surface,” he said, noting that at the end of the day, countries want to equip their people with the best gear.

Antisemitism in Germany ‘worse than any time since the Holocaust,’ annual figures show-The number of attacks fell 13% in Berlin in 2025, but a ‘societal climate’ of attacks on Jews pervades in the country, government report finds By Zev Stub Today, 12:58 pm-MAY 21,26

Germany continues to face persistently high levels of antisemitism, with 2,197 anti-Jewish incidents recorded in Berlin in 2025, according to a report published Wednesday by Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism, known as RIAS.The figure was down about 13 percent from 2,521 incidents the previous year, but remained more than double pre-October 7, 2023, levels.In the state of Hesse, RIAS noted a record 1,099 antisemitic incidents in 2025, an 18% increase from the previous year and nearly six times higher than before Hamas launched its war against Israel in late 2023.“The threat to Jewish life is worse than at any time since the Holocaust,” Hesse antisemitism commissioner Uwe Becker said in a statement following the report.RIAS highlighted 40 violent incidents in Berlin during the year, including a stabbing attack in February at the Holocaust Memorial in which a young man was wounded in the neck.That attacker, who carried a written oath of allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group and shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the assault, was later convicted of attempted murder and attempted membership in a foreign terrorist organization, and sentenced to 13 years in prison, the report noted. The man narrowly survived the life-threatening injury after fighting back, fleeing to the edge of the monument, and undergoing emergency surgery.Other cases involved assaults, victims being punched in the face, spat on, sprayed with chemical irritants, or having religious garments and jewelry violently torn from their bodies.The report describes an increasingly hostile environment in which Jews and Israelis face harassment, intimidation and violence in public spaces.RIAS Berlin recorded antisemitic occurrences at 239 public assemblies and rallies in 2025, the highest number ever recorded. The protests frequently featured antisemitic chants, banners equating Zionism or Israel with Nazism, and anti-Jewish slurs woven into public speeches.Activism categorized as “anti-Israel” accounted for the largest identifiable share of politically motivated incidents, driving 303 cases overall and 179 of the antisemitic rallies. The far-right/right-wing populist spectrum was linked to 123 incidents, primarily taking the form of swastika graffiti and illegal propaganda stickers plastered across outward-lying residential districts.“These are not isolated events,” the report said. “They point to a societal climate in which antisemitic statements and actions are possible—and too often go unchallenged.”During the year, several Jewish residents had their apartment doors defaced with threatening language or marked with far-right symbols, the report said. In public spaces, everyday activities like riding the subway, ordering a coffee, or taking a taxi frequently devolved into unexpected confrontations if a person spoke Hebrew or wore a Star of David.The report warned that antisemitism has become increasingly normalized across German society, making life for the Jewish community increasingly perilous.“Negotiating the relationship between visibility and safety was already an everyday challenge for many Jews before October 7, 2023,” the report said. “Since then, this burden has been further exacerbated by a more uninhibited and openly articulated antisemitism.”

San Diego mosque shooters, who met online, called for genocide of Jews and Muslims-Holocaust-denying teens praised Hitler, called all women ‘evil,’ in violent writings; terrorists killed beloved security guard Amin Abdullah as he protected 140 schoolchildren-By AP and Leon Kraiem Today, 11:35 am-MAY 21,26

The two US teenagers who shot and killed three people in an attack on a California mosque were radicalized online, where they first met and shared white supremacist views, including antisemitism, according to authorities and writings they authored.The pair “didn’t discriminate on who they hated,” Mark Remily, the lead FBI agent in San Diego, said Tuesday.The writings, some of which were circulating online in the days after the attack, glorified other terrorists and included hateful rhetoric toward Jews, Muslims, LGBT people, African-Americans, and both the political left and right.They were also vitriolically sexist, asserting that “after the Jew the most evil creature in this world is the woman.” At least one of the shooters identified as an “incel,” a term used by men online to refer to their failure to have sex with women.In a lengthy manifesto, which police said they believed to be authentic, the shooter declared Jews “the universal enemy,” responsible for war, famine, child abuse and various social ills, and wrote that the only solution is “to just kill them all.”The document heaped praise on Adolf Hitler, yet denied the Holocaust.It also bore the trademarks of more recent antisemitic conspiracy theories, claiming that Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes were religiously motivated, and fixating on supposed Jewish hatred for “goyim,” or non-Jews.The latter rhetoric, long used by white supremacists, has also started to take root on the American left in recent years, amid openly hateful language ostensibly directed at Israelis.The shooters expressed beliefs that white people are being eliminated, explicitly citing the “Great Replacement” theory that Jews are facilitating mass migration to the West in order to wipe out white people.Muslims were described as one such “invading” force, who must be “exterminated.”The two suspects met online before discovering they both lived in the San Diego area, the FBI said. “In terms of how the radicalization occurred, we’re still digging into that,” Remily said.Investigators found at least 30 guns, ammunition and a crossbow at two residences after Monday’s attack in San Diego and were trying to uncover whether the shooters had broader plans, Remily said.The shooters, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, killed themselves, according to police.The teenagers had written of an intention to livestream the attack, using GoPro-type cameras to document the atrocity.Footage online that purported to be such documentation could not be immediately verified.James Canning, a spokesman for the San Diego Unified School District, said Clark had been attending school online since 2021 and was set to graduate next month.In 2024, he was a member of the wrestling team at Madison High School. Canning said Clark had no record of disciplinary issues in high school.Neighbors Marne and Ted Celaya said they last saw Clark a few hours before the shooting and that he waved as he got into a car alone and drove away. They described the family as good neighbors and recalled watching Cain grow up.“It’s unbelievable,” Marne Celaya said of the shooting. “He’s helped me bring in my groceries.”The families of the two teens could not immediately be reached for comment.Authorities praised the three men killed in the attack — including Amin Abdullah, a beloved security guard — for slowing the attackers at the Islamic Center of San Diego and preventing them from reaching 140 schoolchildren just steps away.Imam Taha Hassane said Abdullah engaged the suspects in a gun battle and called for a lockdown on his radio. He “sacrificed his life to stop them from getting inside the classrooms.”Victims were pillars of the community-Police said the security guard opened fire when the shooters arrived at the Islamic Center and tried to barge inside.As the shooters made their way into the lobby, they wounded the guard, who kept firing at them, forcing them back outside, where the attackers fatally shot him, Police Chief Scott Wahl said.The pair went back inside and searched through rooms that were emptied during the lockdown, Wahl said. They exited into the parking lot, where they fatally shot Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad, according to police. The men drew the attackers farther away from the building, Wahl said.Kaziha, known as Abu Ezz, “was everything” to the Islamic Center, Hassane said. “He was the handyman. He was the cook. He was the caretaker,” Hassane said.Abdullah had worked at the mosque for more than a decade.“He wanted to defend the innocent so he decided to become a security guard,” said family friend Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq.Amin Abdullah. Mansour Kaziha. Nadir Awad. These are the names and faces of the three heroic men who were killed at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday afternoon. Say their names, not the shooters. #NoNotoriety#EndGunViolence #HonorWithAction #SandyHookPromise pic.twitter.com/hwyrsYqFNM — Sandy Hook Promise (@sandyhook) May 19, 2026-Hassane cried as leaders of different faiths embraced him at a vigil Tuesday evening to honor the victims. He told the hundreds who had gathered at a park next to the center that they were there to celebrate the community’s unity.“We are here to celebrate the patience, the resilience of the Muslim community,” he said. “We are here to honor our heroes, our martyrs.”Mosque leaders were used to hate mail-The Islamic Center sits in a neighborhood with Middle Eastern restaurants and markets. It includes Al Rashid School, which offers courses in Arabic language, Islamic studies and the Quran for students ages 5 and up, its website says.Josie-Ana Edenshaw, who has been going to the mosque for three years, said it was especially welcoming to new Muslims.“They’ve always opened their doors, even to people who aren’t Muslim, they invite people to Ramadan dinners,” Edenshaw said. “Every person at that masjid will smile at you,” using the Arabic word for mosque.The center’s imam said Tuesday that the mosque and its community weren’t immune to threats over the years.“We have never ever expected such things to happen at the Islamic Center of San Diego,” Hassane said. “I mean we are used to receiving hate mails, hate messages, people driving by and cursing and all that stuff. But such a horrible crime, we have never expected this.”

West Bank, Gaza antiquities bill advances as government okays $86 million heritage plan-Knesset committee working to finish controversial legislation, which critics say would mark an unprecedented step toward annexation, for final votes in the plenum on Sunday By Rossella Tercatin-Today, 3:02 am-MAY 21,26

The government on Wednesday approved a NIS 250 million ($86 million) plan for the preservation and development of heritage and archaeological sites in the West Bank, as coalition members continued holding marathon sessions in the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee to prepare a controversial bill seeking to extend Israeli civilian control over antiquities in the West Bank and Gaza for its final votes.According to a joint statement by the Prime Minister’s Office, Finance, Tourism, Heritage, and Settlement ministries, the plan includes the establishment of new heritage centers and tourism infrastructure, as well as funding for efforts to combat looting and vandalism.“In the year in which we will mark 60 years since the liberation of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, the heart of our homeland, the government of Israel is making a decision of the highest national and historical importance,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, using the biblical name for the West Bank.“Today we are investing in preserving our past in order to secure our future, strengthen our hold on the Land of Israel, and pass on to future generations the heritage, identity and historical truth of our people,” he added.Asked whether there was a connection between the plan and the new legislation, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel that he did not know.The bill aims to establish a “Judea, Samaria and Gaza Heritage Authority” under the Heritage Ministry. The body is also set to have the power to operate in parts of the West Bank governed by the Palestinian Authority (Areas A and B).The committee intends to finish preparing the bill for the final plenum readings on Sunday. After that, the plenum could vote the proposal into law as early as Monday.However, it is also possible that if legislation to dissolve the Knesset that was advanced Tuesday is fast-tracked to be passed into law next week, the antiquities bill will not be put up for final votes in the plenum.If approved in its current form, the legislation will change the decades-long status quo in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, marking the first time a civilian body will assume responsibilities currently held by the Defense Ministry and directly affecting the Palestinians living there, although it is not clear how it would be applied in war-torn Gaza.Critics of the bill say that it represents an unprecedented step toward annexation. Supporters of the bill also say that the legislation is about extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza.During the committee, a representative of the army declared that the Israel Defense Forces is against the bill.“The IDF opposes the direct application of this law to the Gaza Strip,” said Maj. Marta Kramenko, head of the Infrastructure, Economics and Personnel Section in the Legal Adviser for Judea and Samaria during Wednesday’s committee meeting.“The application of Israeli legislation on territory that is not in Israeli hands, and in particular the granting of administrative powers, management, supervision, enforcement, expropriation or collection of fees to a civilian Israeli body in relation to assets and sites located in the Strip could harm the status of the relevant military and security elements, create significant security and professional complexities for them, and be seen in the international arena as a step with characteristics of de facto annexation,” she added.Kramenko also emphasized that the bill conflicts US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.She reiterated that the army opposes the application of the law in the West Bank, as it would supersede military legislation that governs the whole area.The person currently responsible for the antiquities is now a staff officer of the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank.Attorney Ayala Roash, from the legal office at the Defense Ministry, also warned the committee of the legal difficulties the bill raises.“In essence, this proposal removes the authority of the military commander, taking away his powers,” she said. “This is essentially a contradiction of the paradigm according to which Israel manages the territories of the region.”While the vast majority of archaeologists agree that antiquities in the West Bank have been significantly impacted by looting, vandalism and neglect, the bill has faced backlash from the outset.Many archaeologists say the new system would not help care for the antiquities, in light of the complexity of the area, but would rather further expose Israeli academics to boycotts and cuts to international funding. Others pointed out how, according to prevalent interpretations of international law, Israel is not allowed to conduct academic excavations in the disputed areas, but only salvage excavations.Many also charge the coalition with using the field of antiquities to advance annexation without explicitly labeling it as such.The bill’s supporters openly stated that changing the status quo was precisely their goal.“In my opinion, it is a terrible disgrace that the State of Israel has not applied Israeli law in Judea and Samaria for so many years,” said committee chair Zvi Sukkot of Religious Zionism. “I was elected to fix this, among other things.”“I would be happy to be the first committee chairman to legislate a law concerning the Gaza Strip as well as Judea and Samaria, and make this history,” he added.Asked whether the new plan concerning heritage sites in the West Bank was connected to the legislative effort and whether the budget would be used to establish the new heritage authority as stated in some Hebrew media reports, a Heritage Ministry spokesperson told The Times of Israel that was not the case.

US used over half its THAAD interceptors defending Israel during Iran war — report-US official says even more would be used if new war erupts because Israel sent its batteries for maintenance; other official claims Israel ‘not capable’ of winning wars on its own By ToI Staff Today, 2:55 am-MAY 21,26

The US reportedly used up more than half of its inventory of THAAD anti-missile interceptors while defending Israel from Iranian attacks during the recent war.According to The Washington Post on Thursday, the United States used over 200 THAAD interceptors to shoot down missiles bound for Israel. It also launched more than 100 SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors to defend Israel, which itself used fewer than 100 Arrow interceptors and around 90 from the David Sling’s system.A US official told the newspaper that if fighting renews with Iran, the US will likely need to use even more interceptors defending Israel because of a decision by the latter to send some missile defense batteries for maintenance.“Israel is not capable of fighting and winning wars on its own, but nobody actually knows this, because they never see the back end,” said a US official quoted in the report.The Pentagon denied to The Washington Post that there is any issue of burden sharing with Israel, saying, “Ballistic missile interceptors are just one tool in a vast network of systems and capabilities.”The Israeli Embassy in Washington said in response that “the US has no other partner with the military willingness, readiness, shared interests and capabilities of Israel.”Israel has consistently denied claims that it is running low on interceptors, and last month, it approved plans to dramatically accelerate the production of Arrow interceptor missiles.During the early days of the war, the US also insisted it had enough offensive and defensive munitions after a Post report said it may need to begin conserving interceptors.Israel has a multi-layered air defense array, with a variety of systems intercepting threats at different altitudes.The top tier consists of the anti-ballistic missile Arrow systems, with Arrow 2 operating both within the Earth’s atmosphere and in space, and Arrow 3 intercepting above the Earth’s atmosphere.A single Arrow 3 missile has an estimated price of $2-3 million and takes a few months to produce, although the exact time frame has not been made public by Israel due to security concerns.Israel launched its campaign against Iran, alongside the US, to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “create the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.During the war, 21 Israeli civilians and foreign nationals were killed in Israel in Iranian ballistic missile attacks, along with four Palestinians in the West Bank.Some 650 ballistic missiles were launched from Iran at Israel during the war, killing 21 Israeli civilians and foreign nationals, along with four Palestinians in the West Bank.In all, at least 16 missiles carrying conventional warheads with hundreds of kilograms of explosives struck populated areas in Israel, causing extensive damage. There were also more than 50 incidents of missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads hitting populated areas, with hundreds of separate impact sites.

IDF said to be probing suspected looting by a commander-10 soldiers, including brigade commander, hurt in separate Hezbollah drone attacks-Commander of 401st Armored Brigade seriously hurt as two attacks on troops in south Lebanon cause range of injuries; IDF strikes Hezbollah weapons site inside clinic-By Stav Levaton-21 May 2026, 12:03 am

Ten IDF soldiers were wounded, including two seriously, in two separate explosive drone attacks launched by Hezbollah on troops operating in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as limited fighting with the Iran-backed terror group persisted despite a ceasefire.In one of the incidents, the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, Col. Meir Biderman, 41, was seriously wounded by an explosive drone, the IDF said.The military said that Col. (res.) H., who currently serves as the brigade’s chief of staff, will temporarily fill his position.A reserve lieutenant colonel serving in the 162nd Division was moderately wounded in the same incident, while an additional reservist sustained light injuries, according to the IDF.In another Hezbollah drone blast, a female soldier was seriously wounded, a combat officer and two additional soldiers sustained moderate injuries, and two more were lightly wounded, the army said.The Commander of the 401st Armoured Brigade, Col. Meir Biderman, was severely wounded, and another reserve officer was moderately injured from an explosive drone impact in southern Lebanon. Furthermore, during the incident, a non-commissioned officer was lightly injured. pic.twitter.com/jiy7noJ1G1 — Israel National News – Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) May 20, 2026-All of the wounded were evacuated to a hospital for treatment, and their families were notified.Also on Wednesday, the IDF published footage of a strike it carried out earlier in the week on a Hezbollah weapons production site in the Tyre area of southern Lebanon that had been established inside a building previously used as a civilian clinic and located meters away from a mosque.The IDF said secondary explosions were identified following the strike, indicating the presence of weapons inside the building.The military echoed accusations it made earlier on Wednesday, when the IDF announced a separate strike on a civilian building allegedly housing Hezbollah surveillance equipment in southern Lebanon, with the military again accusing the terror group of using civilian infrastructure in operations against Israel.According to the military, the surveillance system, which it struck on Tuesday, was used by Hezbollah operatives to monitor and direct activity against troops in the area.In a separate incident, the unit also killed a Hezbollah operative who the IDF said was operating from a warehouse used to store weapons. The military said secondary explosions were also identified following that strike.Later Wednesday, the Kan public broadcaster reported that the IDF is investigating a suspected looting incident involving a reserve battalion commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel, after troops allegedly took a generator from southern Lebanon and brought it back to Israel.Kan reported that information recently reached the officer’s commanders alleging that the battalion commander, another officer and several soldiers loaded the generator onto their jeep while operating in Lebanon and drove it back into Israeli territory.According to the report, the incident came to light after soldiers informed their commanders, who then instructed the battalion commander to return the generator to the location from which it had been taken.Responding to the report, the IDF said the incident was carried out “without authorization and in violation of mandatory procedures,” adding that the military “views any deviation from the orders and norms expected of its soldiers with great severity and acts accordingly.”The incident comes less than a month after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned senior commanders that incidents of looting by troops “stain the entire IDF.”Lebanon’s health ministry said Monday the toll in the latest round of fighting had topped 3,000.Many Hezbollah fighters who have been killed in the war are not included in the health ministry death toll, sources familiar with Hezbollah’s casualty numbers have said.Twenty IDF soldiers and one Defense Ministry civilian contractor have been killed in southern Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah. Two civilians were also killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.In Lebanon, the Israeli military has said that it has killed over 2,000 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since hostilities escalated amid the war with Iran.Last week, the US and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington wrapped up the third round of direct talks, after which the nominal ceasefire in Lebanon was extended for another 45 days.US President Donald Trump has publicly called for a meeting between Aoun and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Aoun has declined to meet or speak directly with Netanyahu at this stage — a move that would likely generate blowback in Lebanon, where talks with Israel were met with protests among the third of the population that is Shiite.In support of its patron, Iran, Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into war in early March by launching drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel. Israel has since invaded southern Lebanon and bombed thousands of sites around the country, saying it is targeting the terror group’s efforts to rearm.More than a million people have been displaced in Lebanon by the fighting, with some sheltering in tents along roads and the sea in Beirut. Israel, meanwhile, has struggled to halt frequent Hezbollah drone attacks.The US-led mediation has emerged in parallel to diplomacy ​aimed at ending the US-Iran conflict. Iran has ⁠said ending Israel’s war in Lebanon is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict.Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Archaeology 'The environment directly shaped human technology'Smaller prey, not bigger brains, drove prehistoric tech revolution, Israeli researchers say-New study by Tel Aviv University scientists posits disappearance of megaherbivors in the Levant drove humans to develop smaller, more sophisticated tools 200,000 years ago By Rossella Tercatin-20 May 2026, 10:07 pm

Some 200,000 years ago, prehistoric humans ceased using the large, heavy stone tools their ancestors had used for nearly 2 million years before that — such as handaxes, cleavers, and massive scrapers — and developed smaller and more sophisticated ones.Until now, scholars attributed the change to an increase in cognitive ability in ancient hominins. However, a recent study by Tel Aviv University researchers, published in the April issue of the Quarterly Science Review, suggests that the disappearance of megaherbivores like elephants and hippos was also a crucial factor in driving the change.“During the Lower Paleolithic period (approximately 2 million to 200,000 years ago), humans routinely used heavy-duty tools such as handaxes, cleavers, and massive scrapers,” PhD candidate Vlad Litov, the lead author of the study, said in a statement. “These tools were particularly well suited for butchering and processing the very large animals that served as a primary food source for humans throughout this period.”“With the transition to the Middle Paleolithic period, around 200,000 years ago, heavy-duty tools almost completely disappeared and were replaced by smaller, lighter, and more sophisticated tools,” he added. “Until now, this shift has been attributed to advances in human cognition. In our new study, we propose a different interpretation: the dramatic decline in the prevalence of megaherbivores was the key driver of this technological change.”The elephants that stampeded through the Middle East up to 400,000 years ago were called “straight tusk elephants,” with the largest males weighing up to 13 tons. In comparison, the average African bush elephant today is around 7 tons for males.Early humans would kill elephants sparingly, but when they did, it could feed their community for months. Other megaherbivores in the area included rhinos and hippos.The researchers analyzed animal remains and stone tools unearthed in dozens of sites across the Levant.Around 200,000 years ago, humans began hunting smaller animals, such as fallow deer, using smaller tools that were likely more efficient for processing the prey.“The findings shed new light on the relationship between early humans and their environment, highlighting how profound ecological changes can shape human culture, technology, and ways of life over time,” Prof. Ran Barkai said in the statement.“Our study suggests that the dramatic technological shifts of prehistory were not the result of a sudden leap in human cognitive abilities, but rather a direct response to major environmental change,” he added. “In this sense, the environment not only influenced early humans, but directly shaped their technology, and perhaps even their cultural and cognitive development.”The most recent paper is part of a larger research project that Barkai and his team have been conducting for over a decade, focusing on the role of megaherbivores and their extinction in human diet and evolution.Previous research also suggested that the extinction of large animals forced humans to adapt to increasingly smaller prey and, eventually, to domesticate plants and animals during the agricultural revolution.Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.

Op-ed The US and Israel were betting on the Kurds and Ahmadinejad?! With Trump conflicted and Iran emboldened, vital bid to end regime’s nuclear drive is being botched-The Islamic Republic retains its highly enriched uranium stockpile, has 10 tons of lower-enriched uranium that nobody’s even asking for, and is holding the world to ransom at the Strait of Hormuz-By David Horovitz-20 May 2026, 5:17 pm

This Editor’s Note was sent out earlier Wednesday in ToI’s weekly update email to members of the Times of Israel Community. To receive these Editor’s Notes as they’re released, join the ToI Community here.President Donald Trump has repeatedly contradicted himself regarding the progress of the Iran war.He has said that the war is won, just not won enough.He has said that the Iranian regime has changed, replaced by a leadership that is less radical and very reasonable, but also that the current leadership, if it attains nuclear weapons, would blow up Israel and the region and create a “nuclear holocaust.”He has insisted that Iran must be prevented from attaining nuclear weapons, and criticized his vice president for offering a deal under which Iran would be prevented from enriching uranium for only 20 years, and subsequently said that a 20-year limitation on enrichment would be sufficient.He has set repeated deadlines for Iran’s surrender, or for its acceptance of US terms, or for its submission of more reasonable terms, and warned with multiple linguistic flourishes that otherwise the fighting will resume and Iran will be destroyed. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he vowed last month, in the most far-reaching such threat. He has then repeatedly canceled those deadlines.In such a confused and contradictory context, there is simply no knowing how, or whether, the war will continue. By his own account(s) on Tuesday, Trump was both an hour away from taking the decision to resume airstrikes on Monday, and/or had already taken the decision, but decided to hold off.As far as most of the international community is concerned — and that includes much of the American public — the world would have been a far better place had the US and Israel not attacked Iran on February 28, because the regime has been able to leverage its control over the Strait of Hormuz to play havoc with global energy supplies. Any remotely competent strategic planning would have recognized this danger before the first airstrikes were launched and planned accordingly.As far as most of the international community is concerned, by extension, the key imperative now is to reach some kind of accommodation with the regime that enables the stable reopening of the strait. But, of course, so long as the regime is in power, there can and will be no credible guarantees of stability.Far worse, the essential goal with which the US and Israel went to war — ensuring that this regime has no path to nuclear weapons — has not been achieved. To the contrary.Iran retains its stockpile of some 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to near-weapons grade 60%. As Trump acknowledged on Friday, it has refused to have that stockpile — which represents its clearest path to a nuclear arsenal — dug out of its bomb-battered underground nuclear facilities and shipped out.Moreover, it is not even being seriously pressed to relinquish its 10 tons of uranium enriched to lower levels, some of which would take only weeks to raise to weapons-grade.Far from having all of its enrichment facilities obliterated, to use a favorite Trump term, the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear weapons watchdog, warned in March that Iran has a new enrichment facility in its Isfahan nuclear complex whose precise location and status are unknown. Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies this week spotlighted Iran’s progress in reviving its enrichment capabilities via the “rehabilitation of the Fordow site” and the “accelerated construction of ‘Pickaxe Mountain,'” south of Natanz.As things stand, the regime is publicly deriding Trump, reveling in its capacity to face down the US and Israeli militaries, and threatening to broaden its targets if attacked again, all while outflanking the president in negotiations amid its awareness that he is under mounting domestic pressure to cut a deal that reopens Hormuz. But Tehran is not resting on its laurels. It is also rehabilitating its missile capabilities and learning everything it can from its vulnerability to American and Israeli air superiority, the better to counter future strikes.Whatever Trump might want to believe, the regime is, if anything, more radical than it was under Ali Khamenei, and it is certainly more motivated to advance its nuclear weapons program — the ultimate weapon, and the ultimate deterrent.Eli Levite, a former deputy head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, suggested in a Channel 12 interview this week that the least bad way ahead right now would be for the US to push for an interim deal with the regime that would reopen Hormuz and prevent Iran from carrying out any further nuclear development, backed by a far more efficient inspection mechanism.That sounds like a pretty bad least-bad option, and underlines how poorly this essential resort to force against a would-be genocidal regime was prepared. The bottom line is and was that the ayatollahs’ regime must be removed — for the sake of the Iranian people, Israel, the region, and the rest of the free world. The mounting concern is that a rare opportunity to do so has been, and is being, botched.Deadlock and division-It would appear that Israel was shocked by Trump’s latest eleventh-hour decision to cancel a planned renewal of airstrikes. It would also appear, as of this writing, that Israel believes the US president could yet reverse that reversal and resume the war.In the interim, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be working to stave off potential elections sought by ultra-Orthodox parties in September, to the latest possible date on October 27, apparently in the hope, among his other goals, that a maximal term could enable greater success in the battles against Iran, the revived and deadly Hezbollah, and the reinvigorated Hamas.To try to placate the ultra-Orthodox parties, however, the prime minister continues to try to advance a law enshrining the unconscionable ongoing Haredi exemption from military service, alongside legislation that would, outrageously, extend other Israelis’ mandatory service from 32 months to 36 months.Racing against the election clock, the coalition is also fast-tracking all manner of anti-democratic and discriminatory laws — seeking to criminalize non-Orthodox religious activities at the Western Wall, to impose controls on independent media, to strip the role of attorney general of its independence and authority, to hobble the opening of criminal investigations into the prime minister and other senior officials… The list goes appallingly on.Meanwhile, the opposition, which has proved unable, even since October 7, to focus effectively on Netanyahu’s untenable encouragement of ultra-Orthodox non-service, remains ineffectual and disunited. It is failing to effectively highlight the government’s indulgence of rising Jewish terrorism in the West Bank, explicitly encouraged in years past by the despicable Itamar Ben Gvir, who daily harms and shames our nation as the minister of national security.It has been unable to capitalize on public outrage at Netanyahu’s refusal to allow the necessary independent investigation of the catastrophic failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre. It has even been cowed by Netanyahu into preemptively excluding the mainly Arab Ra’am party as a potential coalition partner — a partner whom Netanyahu himself sought to recruit in the past.The resort to force against the regime in Iran was more than legitimate; it was vital. The failure to plan strategically — underestimating the ultra-cunning regime over Hormuz; betting on the Kurds, or on the Holocaust-denying, Israel-hating Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?!? — was inexcusable.Netanyahu working to avoid turning deadlock into outright failure in the weeks and months ahead is essential. Further weakening Israel from within before we finally go to the polls, debilitating our democracy and deepening the inequalities and divisions, is unforgivable.

South Korea says Israel’s detention of flotilla activists ‘way out of line’President Lee says citizens are detained for reasons not valid under international law, and ICC warrants against Netanyahu will be judged separately from Europe-By Agencies and ToI Staff 20 May 2026, 1:20 pm

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Israel detained South Korean nationals in international waters, calling the action “way out of line,” in an apparent reference to participants in the flotilla to Gaza.The Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that the latest activist flotilla, consisting of 50 boats, aiming to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, had “come to an end,” with more than 400 activists taken to Israel.During a cabinet meeting, Lee said South Korean citizens had been detained for reasons not valid under international law, questioning whether such actions could be allowed to pass without protest.Lee also said he believes many European countries are willing to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under International Criminal Court warrants, but that Seoul must make its own judgment on the matter.Israeli authorities began detaining the activists seized from the Gaza-bound flotilla at the southern Israeli port of Ashdod on Wednesday, the Adalah rights group said.The authorities said 430 activists aboard the flotilla were en route to Israel, while Adalah said some had already arrived at Ashdod port and were being held there.“Having set sail toward Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and challenge the unlawful blockade, these civilian participants were forcefully abducted from international waters and taken into Israeli territory entirely against their will,” Adalah said.“These acts are a direct extension of Israel’s policies of collective punishment and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.”The flotilla was led by Turkish aid organization IHH, which is designated in Israel as a terror organization and which organized the deadly 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza.A live feed on the Global Sumud Flotilla’s website showed Israeli commandos boarding the vessels on Tuesday as activists in life vests put their hands up. The troops then destroyed cameras mounted on the ships.In a post on X, the Foreign Ministry said 430 activists will be able to meet with their consular representatives.“Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” the statement added.The Israel Defense Forces began stopping the flotilla around 167 miles (268 kilometers) from the Gaza coastline, according to the flotilla’s website. The vessels departed last week from Marmaris, Turkey, which, along with Gaza-ruling Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, called the interdictions an act of “piracy.”The Global Sumud Flotilla later confirmed that all 50 boats were intercepted, saying 428 participants from more than 40 countries were detained, including 78 Turks.The flotilla urged governments and world leaders to demand the activists’ “immediate and unconditional release” and to ensure they receive legal and consular help without delay.Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for an urgent review of Israel’s use of force after Italian activists said soldiers fired rubber bullets at vessels — an account that was also reported by Hebrew media, but which Israel denied.Italy said Tajani had repeatedly asked the Israeli government for assurances regarding the safety and well-being of detained Italian activists aboard the flotilla.Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said he had summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Madrid on Monday over what he called “a new violation of international law barely 15 days after the previous interception,” referring to a flotilla that was blocked by Israeli forces earlier this month. He estimated there were around 45 Spanish nationals in the flotilla, of whom between 10 and 20 were being detained.Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry urged Israel to release all the detained activists and confirmed two of its nationals, including a journalist, were aboard the flotillas.

MKs advance bill to dissolve Knesset, potentially trigger slightly earlier elections-Netanyahu absent from preliminary vote, which left-wing leader calls ‘beginning of end of worst government in Israel’s history’; bill does not set date for elections, which must in any case be held by Oct. 27 By Sam Sokol and Ariela Karmel 20 May 2026, 2:13 pm

Lawmakers voted on Wednesday afternoon 110-0 in favor of a preliminary reading of a government-backed bill to dissolve the Knesset, potentially triggering slightly earlier elections if ultimately passed into law.The dissolution bill does not specify an election date — instead stipulating that it be set by the Knesset House Committee on a day no less than three months from the legislation’s final approval — and the timeline for passing the bill remains unclear: It could be pushed swiftly through the Knesset in the coming days, or delayed by political machinations.Elections must be held within five months of the law’s passing, which would mean mid- to late-October at the latest. The Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties reportedly favor an election date in early September. Elections must, in any case, be held by October 27.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend the vote, instead reportedly holding security consultations.The vote was welcome by the opposition, with Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari screaming out the “Shehecheyanu” blessing, recited by Jews on joyous occasions, in the middle of the plenum.Calling the vote “the beginning of the end of the worst government in Israel’s history,” Democrats chair Yair Golan said that “it no longer matters whether elections are moved up or held on schedule”; the government that has caused “unprecedented damage” is “nearing the end of its path.”“These are the October 7 elections,” the left-wing party leader declared in a statement, vowing to “send home the government of failure that brought upon us the greatest disaster in the country’s history.”Addressing lawmakers, coalition whip Ofir Katz insisted that the “coalition has served its purpose.”“We have passed nine budgets in this term and 520 laws. Regarding the conscription law, we will pass a law that comes through dialogue and meets the needs of the IDF,” Katz said. “The value of Torah study must be maintained, and at the same time, those who do not study will enlist.”A Haredi revolt-Wednesday’s vote came after Netanyahu’s erstwhile allies in the United Torah Judaism party announced last week that they would push to dissolve the Knesset over the coalition’s failure to pass legislation codifying military conscription exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.Their decision was made after Netanyahu told Haredi MKs that the coalition currently doesn’t have the votes to pass the draft exemption legislation, and reportedly asked them to agree to shelve the bill until after the elections.In response to UTJ’s move to dissolve the Knesset and in an effort to control both the legislative process and the timing of the elections, Katz, who also chairs the Knesset House Committee, last week submitted his own legislation calling for new elections to be held.The bill was cosponsored by lawmakers from UTJ, Shas, New Hope, Religious Zionism, and the Otzma Yehudit parties. Similar bills were submitted by the opposition as well.Thirteen separate bills to dissolve the Knesset, sponsored by both opposition and coalition lawmakers, are on Wednesday’s plenum agenda. The various bills will likely be combined before being sent to committee for deliberations ahead of the next of the three Knesset readings they must pass before becoming law.Lawmakers voted against a dissolution bill sponsored by Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh.Netanyahu has reportedly urged the ultra-Orthodox parties not to force early elections in September, warning in private conversations that such a timeline would “endanger” the right-wing bloc’s chances of winning.In an effort to win the Haredim over and avoid a September election date, Netanyahu placed the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox draft exemption bill back on the parliamentary agenda, with a discussion taking place Wednesday morning in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.Netanyahu’s suggestion was rejected by the ultra-Orthodox, however, with Degel HaTorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando telling lawmakers earlier this week “not to get drawn into political games and to support the dissolution of the Knesset.”Speaking with The Times of Israel on Tuesday, Haredi political sources denied claims by officials close to Netanyahu that he had managed to convince a majority of lawmakers to finally pass the controversial exemption bill.Calls to halt controversial bills-Passing the preliminary reading alone may still complicate the coalition’s legislative agenda for the remainder of the Knesset term, particularly on election-related initiatives such as lowering the voting age or raising the electoral threshold, both measures the coalition has expressed interest in advancing.The coalition is racing to advance other contentious legislation before the Knesset dissolves and early elections are triggered. Opponents warn that the legislation, particularly a bill to split the attorney general’s role and significantly curtail the office’s powers, is part of an effort to remove one of the sole checks on executive power just as Israel heads into an election period.Following the vote, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz called on Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to halt the advancement of controversial coalition legislation underway.“It is proper and necessary for the Knesset to refrain from advancing controversial legislation with broad public, constitutional, economic and social implications that does not enjoy broad consensus or within the legislature,” Gantz said in a statement, referring in particular to the draft exemption bill for yeshiva students, a media overhaul bill and the bill to split the role of the attorney general.Writing to coalition whip Katz, Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari demanded that the Knesset House Committee convene Wednesday to advance the bill “without delay,” arguing that the legislative process should be expedited “in order to bring about the Knesset’s dissolution as soon as possible.”Forty-two percent of Israelis who voted for Netanyahu’s Likud party in the previous election are either considering or have decided to back a different party in the next elections, according to a Channel 12 news poll broadcast earlier this month.The May 7 poll found that if elections were held today, Zionist anti-Netanyahu parties would win 59 seats — two short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The survey said factions that comprise the current coalition would receive 51 seats, while Arab parties would pick up 10.

Pecking disorder-Bullying crows attack children, parents at Tel Aviv kindergarten-Birds swooping down and assaulting people, with some drawing blood; municipality cites annual phenomenon of adults protecting chicks as they learn to fly By ToI Staff 20 May 2026, 10:21 am

Aggressive crows have reportedly been attacking parents and children at a kindergarten in central Tel Aviv, but the city says there is nothing it can do to stop the avian assaults.Shelly Tapiero, a reporter for the Kan public broadcaster, posted on X on Monday that, a day earlier, she saw a crow attack a child as he was leaving the kindergarten, and that she herself was attacked on Monday.“I witnessed a crow attack one of the children,” she wrote. “The terrified boy screamed, was overwhelmed, and ran away. This morning, I was attacked to the point of bleeding by a crow at the entrance to the kindergarten.”She wrote that when she complained to the city, she was told that municipal officials attend only to wounded crows. The city appeared to confirm her account, writing that it is unable to stop the attacks.“Hi Shelly, we’re sorry to hear about the attack,” Tel Aviv’s official X account responded. “As a municipality, there is nothing we can do about the phenomenon, and we are unable to get involved, and can only recommend that you keep your distance from the area until the chicks grow.”Tapiero posted on Tuesday that a teacher at the kindergarten was attacked and, when she absented herself, her substitute was attacked.One mother told Channel 12 that parents and staff have increasingly complained about crow attacks.Parents who approached City Hall about the matter said they were told to contact the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. However, the INPA explained that, since crows are not a protected species, the responsibility lies with the municipality.The Tel Aviv Municipality said in a statement that it is a known seasonal phenomenon that mostly happens during April and June, after the crows’ nesting period, when young crow chicks begin to fly.“During this period, the crows protect their young with calls and swoops close to passersby,” it said. “In most cases, it is a frightening experience, but not dangerous, and physical contact with people is rare.”Parents were unimpressed with the municipality’s attitude.“It can’t be that the response from the municipality is to stay away from the area until the young crows grow,” another mother told Channel 12. “It can’t be that the response from the municipality is that the children don’t go to school or kindergarten. The municipality is prioritizing vengeful, attacking crows over the safety of children and other people.”The municipality said in its statement that it acts “in accordance with professional guidelines to preserve nature in the city and does not intervene in cases like this, unless there is an exceptional case that requires individual examination.”However, in the specific case of the kindergarten, the matter was handed over for examination by the veterinary department. On Tuesday morning, the city’s wildlife project manager visited the location and conferred with staff at the kindergarten.“No young birds or unusual hazards were found in the area,” the municipality said, and noted that professional opinions are that the young birds only remain in the area for a few days and then join their flock and move on.City Hall said it also initiated activities to explain to the kindergarten children about how the parent birds care for their young, to reduce anxiety among the children.Similar crow attacks have been reported in other areas, and not always during nesting season. Joggers on Jerusalem’s Tayelet Haas Promenade say they are attacked by a particular “ragged” crow, with one runner telling The Times of Israel that the bird has drawn blood.

Ahead of Shavuot, a Jerusalem cheesecake tour offers a slice of the city’s sweet side-Sampling 14 different cakes at seven capital cafes and bakeries, kosher food influencer Jamie Geller explores recipes and history as she looks to start a new holiday tradition By Zev Stub-20 May 2026, 5:53 am

From the start, Jamie Geller’s cheesecake crawl of Jerusalem was more decadent than expected.“I asked them to bring us one slice of cheesecake for us to share, but they brought out their whole Shavuot collection — five different kinds,” she exclaimed with mock horror as the group sat down at its first stop at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. “We’re really going to have to pace ourselves to make it through all the stops we have planned for today.”Ahead of the Shavuot holiday this Thursday evening and Friday, Geller, a bestselling cookbook author and kosher food influencer who is also the Chief Media and Marketing Officer at Aish, led a small group of journalists to explore some of the best cheesecakes in the Holy City.“Our goal is to sample a variety of different styles of cheesecake ahead of the holiday,” Geller explained at the outset. Many Jerusalemites have a similar custom of sampling Sufganiyot donuts during the Hanukkah season, she noted.As the group embarked on a three-hour tour that would include sharing 14 slices of cheesecake at seven different kosher establishments and bakeries in the center of Jerusalem, Geller hoped that others would follow in her path in future years.“We can make this a new Jerusalem tradition,” she said.History and local customs-For centuries, many Jewish communities have embraced the tradition of eating dairy foods on Shavuot, with a range of mystical and practical reasons suggested over the ages. As early as the 13th century CE, Rabbi Elazar of Worms, Germany, referred to a custom of beginning the holiday meal with a bit of cheese before cleansing his palate and switching to a meat meal. But in recent years, the holiday has been transformed into a festival of dairy foods for many. In Israel, sales of dairy products rose more than 60 percent in the week before Shavuot last year, the Agriculture Ministry said earlier this week.Many Jewish families around the world now observe Shavuot by serving festive meals filled with gourmet cheese platters, cheesy pastas and lasagnas. Dessert, alongside the ice cream and buttery pastries, reaches its pinnacle with the presentation of the cheesecake.“Every year at this time, people start calling me asking for my favorite cheesecake tips,” said Geller, who offers numerous recipes on her website. “It’s one of the holiday’s most recognizable symbols.”Different cheesecake varieties are popular in different places, Geller noted. In Israel, the most popular cheesecakes are baked with soft white cheese, typically 5%-9% fat, along with sugar, cornstarch, and eggs, with a crumbly crust and crumbs on top. New York-style cheesecakes, in contrast, are typically much heavier and richer, baked with cream cheese and thick sour cream.Another variety, the no-bake cheesecake, never sees the inside of an oven. Instead of eggs, it relies on gelatin or other setting agents to hold its shape, and is chilled until firm, usually on top of a cookie or biscuit crust. It tends to be lighter in texture and often feels more refreshing, making it popular in warmer climates like Israel, Geller noted.The Basque cheesecake, also known as San Sebastian cheesecake, is a recent variation originating in Spain, often baked with eggs and flour or cornflour, and ideally served with a slightly burnt top.Geller pointed out the differences in type and texture as she led the group from bakery to cafe.“It’s fascinating to see how each of these cheesecake styles are so different,” she noted.Touring Jerusalem’s cafes-The group began its tour in grand style, in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Five different cheesecakes from the hotel’s Shavuot collection were presented, each on fine china: Two Basque cheesecakes drizzled with chocolate and pistachio sauce, and three non-baked varieties: Chocolate, wild berries, and lemon-passion fruit. Participants noted the difference in the textures and mouthfeel of the two varieties — the Basque was a bit softer and less firm than the non-baked, but all were delicious. At NIS 62 ($21) per slice, these were the most expensive items on the tour.After that, we visited Moulin Doré, a French bakery in the Friends of Zion Museum at Rivlin Street 14, a charming setting with a beautiful outdoor seating area. (Moulin Doré has another branch on Emek Refaim Street as well.) The cheesecake, at NIS 30 ($10) per slice or 190 ($65) for a whole cake, was okay, but at NIS 120 ($41), the flan, a French pastry made with sweet cream, stole the show.“French immigrants have really taken over the bakery scene here in Israel,” Geller noted. “Particularly in the last five years, they have really elevated the culinary scene with their family-owned bake shops, each with its own signature flavor and style. I love how their pastries are so luxurious, decadent and rich.”Our next stop was another French cafe, Napoleon Patisserie at Yo’el Moshe Salomon St 10. The group sampled a slice of cheesecake, which ran NIS 25 ($8.60) and a cheesecake-like pastry that the cafe called cheese mousse for NIS 42 ($14.50). The latter, a round cake covered with caramel sauce, was delicious, dense and rich, and was chosen as one of the best of the day.“I’d say this is the closest we’ve had to a good, heavy New York-style cheesecake,” Geller said.Helen Family Bakers at Agripas 6 was the next stop, a popular bakery that serves only one kind of cheesecake, white with berries and cream on top, for NIS 40 ($14). This one was a surprise: members of the group agreed that this was the best cheesecake of the day, perfect in texture, sweetness, and balance.“I believe we have a winner,” Geller declared.Before we were done, though, there were a few more places to go as we approached the Machane Yehuda Market. Yolo Bakery at Ki’akh 1 offers a creamy cheesecake for NIS 43 ($15) that the group felt tasted too strongly of lemon. At Teller Bakery at Agripas 74, we had a Basque-style cheesecake with a slightly burnt top, as well as a berry cheesecake, which ran NIS 30 each. Finally, Marzipan Bakery at Agripas 44, world-famous for its soft, chewy rugelach, offered a variety of frozen cheesecakes in different flavors. Eating it straight out of the freezer, we tried a crumb cheesecake at NIS 40 for a family-size cake that Geller called “the quintessential Israeli cheesecake.”As the tour concluded, participants were slow to get out of their chairs, enjoying their fat and sugar highs and basking in the afterglow of a delicious adventure. Geller, meanwhile, was already planning her next food crawl.“We can do cholent [a traditional Jewish stew] in the winter, maybe honey cakes before Rosh Hashanah,” she mused. “Enjoying traditional foods together is one of the best ways to get into the holiday spirit.”

IDF intercepts all ships in Gaza-bound flotilla, over 400 activists being transferred to Israel-Foreign Ministry denounces Global Sumud Flotilla’s attempt to break blockade as ‘a PR stunt at the service of Hamas,’ stresses rubber bullets were fired at ships and not activists By Stav Levaton,Agencies and ToI Staff 20 May 2026, 4:11 am

The Foreign Ministry announced late Tuesday that the latest activist flotilla aiming to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza has “come to an end,” with more than 400 activists taken to Israel.Israeli commandos intercepted all of the more than 50 boats in the flotilla. A live feed on the Global Sumud Flotilla’s website showed soldiers boarding the vessels as activists in life vests put their hands up. The troops then destroyed cameras mounted on the ships.“Another PR flotilla has come to an end,” the Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on X. “All 430 activists have been transferred to Israeli vessels and are making their way to Israel, where they will be able to meet with their consular representatives. This flotilla has once again proved to be nothing more than a PR stunt at the service of Hamas. Israel will continue to act in full accordance with international law and will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza.”The Global Sumud Flotilla later confirmed that all 50 boats were intercepted, saying 428 participants from more than 40 countries detained were detained, including 78 Turks.Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called for an urgent review of Israel’s use of force after Italian activists said soldiers fired rubber bullets at vessels, which was also reported by Hebrew media. Flotilla organizers claimed Israeli soldiers fired on five boats during the interdictions, with some damage. There were no reports of casualties.“At no point was live ammunition fired,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier on Tuesday. “Following multiple warnings, non-lethal means were employed toward the vessel – not toward protesters – as a warning.”Israeli forces opened fire at a Global Sumud Flotilla boat on Tuesday, targeting the vessel with rubber bullets. pic.twitter.com/SfGLDQXUhm — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 19, 2026-Additional footage circulating online appeared to show Israeli authorities blasting “Michelle” by Noam Bettan, Israel’s entry in the recent Eurovision Song Contest, through the speakers of at least one flotilla vessel. In similar footage circulated Monday, Israeli authorities were seen playing “Oops!… I Did It Again” by Britney Spears through at least one of the flotilla boats’ speakers.The Israel Defense Forces began stopping the flotilla around 167 miles (268 kilometers) from the Gaza coastline, according to the flotilla’s website. The vessels departed last week from Marmaris, Turkey, which along with Gaza-ruling Palestinian terrorist group Hamas called the interdictions an act of “piracy.”The flotilla urged governments and world leaders to demand the activists’ “immediate and unconditional release” and to ensure they receive legal and consular help without delay.The United States Treasury meanwhile announced on Tuesday it was imposing sanctions against four people associated with the “pro-Hamas” flotilla. US authorities said the sanctioned individuals were associated with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), a group that Washington says works as a front for armed Palestinian groups, including Hamas.Some were accused of association with the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which Israel and the United States accuse of being a front for terrorist groups.The sanctioned individuals included Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin who was one of two activists detained by Israel during the interception of a previous flotilla that set off from Spain last month, before they were both deported. The others to be sanctioned in connection with the aid flotillas were Belgium-based Mohammed Khatib, and Spain-based Hisham Abdallah Sulayman Abu Mahfuz and Jaldia Abubakra Aueda.The organizers of the latest flotilla said they expect the activists to be taken to the port of Ashdod, in southern Israel. Activists on previous flotillas were brought to the same port, where some were processed and immediately deported, while others were detained before they were deported.The flotilla was led by Turkish aid organization IHH, which is designated in Israel as a terror organization and which organized the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza. During that flotilla, 10 Turkish activists were killed in a violent confrontation with Israeli naval commandos, who were attacked with clubs and bars when they boarded the Mavi Marmara ship.

Somaliland’s first-ever embassy anywhere will open in Jerusalem, envoy says-Diplomat from East African breakaway state says Israel will also open embassy in capital city of Hargeisa-By Nava Freiberg -19 May 2026, 8:41 pm

The Republic of Somaliland will open an embassy in Jerusalem, its first anywhere in the world, the state’s ambassador to Israel said Tuesday.“I am pleased to announce that the Republic of Somaliland’s Embassy will be located in Jerusalem — the Embassy will be opened soon, while Israel will also establish its Embassy in Hargeisa, reflecting growing friendship, mutual respect and strategic cooperation between our two peoples,” Somaliland’s Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Hagi wrote on X.Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar hailed the “important decision” to open the embassy in “our eternal capital, Jerusalem,” calling it “another significant step in strengthening relations between our countries and nations.”In December, Israel became the first country in the world to recognize Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991. Last month, Israel appointed its first ambassador to Somaliland, Michael Lotem, and Sa’ar visited the country in January this year.Hagi was visiting Israel, as he is not yet residing in the country, and was received by President Isaac Herzog on Monday, which was also Somaliland’s Independence Day.Somaliland has its own currency, passport, and army, but has struggled to win international recognition, amid concerns in many capitals that this would provoke Somalia and encourage other separatist movements in Africa. Israel’s recognition of the breakaway state drew international backlash.Located in the Horn of Africa, Somaliland enjoys a strategic position across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthis hold territory, making it strategically valuable for Israel.The terror group Houthis began attacking Israel and maritime traffic in November 2023, a month after the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, drawing Israeli airstrikes. They halted attacks after a ceasefire was reached in Gaza in October 2025.Somaliland will be the eighth country to open an embassy in Jerusalem. Most nations’ embassies in Israel are in Tel Aviv, with countries arguing Jerusalem’s standing can only be decided as part of a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, who claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.Israel took control of East Jerusalem – which includes the Old City and its holy sites – from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War. Israel annexed the territory in 1980 and considers the entire city its capital.On Sunday, the government approved a proposal to financially incentivize countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem. The framework, proposed by Sa’ar and Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Yariv Levin, would use funding from both ministries to cover some of the expenses of establishing or relocating embassies to the capital.Currently, seven countries have embassies in Jerusalem — the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Fiji. In December, Ecuador opened an innovation office with diplomatic status in Jerusalem.Lazar Berman and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Commentary-Putin just tested a new long-range missile. What does that mean? Caitlin Talmadge-April 26, 2022-A medium-range ballistic missile target is launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, before being successfully intercepted by Standard Missile.

“Here’s the good news. The fact that Russia notified the United States in advance of the missile test is actually a powerful reminder of the importance of arms control between adversaries. The bad news is that this type of arms control is now hanging by a thread between the United States and Russia, and virtually nonexistent between the United States and China,” writes Caitlin Talmadge. This op-ed originally appeared in the Washington Post.Russia’s recent test of a new long-range nuclear missile has renewed concerns about escalation of the current war in Ukraine. Some analysts viewed the missile test as evidence of President Vladimir Putin’s isolation as his ill-fated campaign drags on — or even as nuclear saber rattling. Putin himself warned that Russia’s missile would “make those, who in the heat of frantic aggressive rhetoric try to threaten our country, think twice.”Here’s the good news. The fact that Russia notified the United States in advance of the missile test is actually a powerful reminder of the importance of arms control between adversaries. The bad news is that this type of arms control is now hanging by a thread between the United States and Russia, and virtually nonexistent between the United States and China.What did Russia test, exactly? Russia has been developing the multi-warhead Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for several years, claiming that it can penetrate any adversary’s defenses. Although this week’s test used only mock warheads, the missile’s ability to carry hypersonic glide vehicles has led Putin to characterize it as “unique.” And a senior Russian official described the missile as a “superweapon.”Yet for all the Russian bluster over the test, the Pentagon reacted with equanimity. Why? Because Russia had informed the United States of the planned launch under the missile test notification regime that is part of the New START accord the two countries extended last year.Under that framework, the United States and Russia are obligated to provide advance warning of missile tests so that they are not mistaken for real launches. This helps avoid the worst-case scenario: if one side mistakenly believes that the other has begun a nuclear attack and, based on this false information, retaliates with a nuclear attack of its own.This week, the arms control regime worked exactly as designed. “Such testing is routine and not a surprise,” the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement after the launch. “We did not deem the test to be a threat to the United States or its allies.”This “nonevent” — the crisis that did not happen when the Russians tested a nuclear missile amid a major conventional war against U.S.-backed Ukraine — is a prime example of the continuing value of global arms control efforts.
Arms control reduces risks, but not necessarily weapons-Arms control is often taken to mean bilateral limitations or reductions in two countries’ nuclear arsenals. That’s the form that U.S.-Soviet arms control efforts took beginning with the first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) in 1972. This approach has continued to characterize U.S.-Russian arms control since the end of the Cold War.

But as scholars Thomas Schelling and Mort Halperin noted in a classic 1961 study, arms control can be much broader. The concept encompasses “all the forms of military cooperation between potential enemies in the interest of reducing the likelihood of a war, its scope and violence if it occurs, and the political and economic costs of being prepared for it.”

For decades, in fact, the United States and Russia have had other mechanisms in place to reduce nuclear risk as well — not despite a poor political relationship, but because of it. For example, after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the two sides developed a hotline enabling senior political leaders to communicate quickly and directly in a crisis. A similar channel still connects the United States and Russia today.Likewise, the United States and Russia established a deconfliction hotline during the war in Syria to avoid inadvertently striking each other’s forces. The United States even warned Russia in advance of its attack on a Syrian airfield housing Russian forces in 2017, in order to avoid any Russian casualties. Russian deaths in such a high-profile strike would have dramatically ratcheted up pressure for a Russian response, risking wider escalation.The United States and Russia recently established a similar deconfliction line to avoid unintended escalation in Ukraine. These are all forms of risk reduction that fall outside the common view of arms control as treaties to reduce weapons, but that nevertheless help to produce the key outcome both sides want: more “nonevents.”Why risk reduction is particularly important-The likelihood that Washington, Moscow, and Beijing will sign a wide-ranging, three-way deal limiting their nuclear forces anytime soon is low. The spiraling political relationship between the United States and Russia, combined with China’s emergence as a third nuclear-armed great power, greatly complicate the prospects for traditional, treaty-based arms control as we know it. The asymmetries in the three countries’ nuclear arsenals, which now encompass very different types of weapons, make it even harder to get to yes.Officials in Beijing have repeatedly indicated little interest in pursuing an arms control treaty. China has also been highly reticent to engage even in more limited forms of risk reduction, such as regular high-level dialogue between political leaders, or military-to-military communications in the increasingly crowded waters of the western Pacific.The war in Ukraine demonstrates the value of such exchanges, however, even between bitter enemies engaged in active conflict. Risk reduction measures between adversaries are best established in peacetime, so that there is a foundation for further communication in a crisis or war.Such mechanisms can be part of legally binding arrangements, like the missile test notification regime demonstrated this week. Or they can evolve informally, along the lines of the deconfliction channels that emerged in Syria and now Ukraine. Whatever form they take, risk reduction measures to ensure more “nonevents” constitute a strong mutual interest among the United States, Russia, and China, as this week’s launch underlines.Critical Questions by Patrycja Bazylczyk and Hannah Freeman-Published November 4, 2025-Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia recently completed the successful test of a new nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed missile, Burevestnik (which translates as “Storm Petrel”), calling it “a unique weapon that no other country possesses.” Because of its onboard nuclear power, the weapon has, in principle, a nearly unlimited range. Putin alleged that the test lasted around 15 hours, with the missile traveling more than 14,000 kilometers. The Norwegian government confirmed that the test flight launched out of Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago off the northern coast of Russia.The development of such a capability has implications for U.S. strategy to deter Russian aggression and missile defense. In response to the test, President Trump announced the resumption of U.S. nuclear weapons testing. Is the Burevestnik a new and significant threat, or is it merely autocratic saber-rattling? Q1: What is the operational status of the Burevestnik? A1: The Burevestnik has not yet been fielded, but Putin called for the armed forces to move from development toward an operationalization phase, instructing them to “determine which class of weapons this new system belongs to, identify possible modes of employment, and begin preparing the infrastructure to base it in our Armed Forces.”This will not happen overnight. As Putin added, “substantial work has to be done in order to place this weapon on combat duty.” To do so, however, Russian forces will not be starting from scratch. Russian state media has since reported that the missile can, with modifications, be integrated into existing launchers for the Iskander and Oreshnik missiles. Those two missiles have been operational since 2006 and 2024, respectively.Q2: Why does Russia claim it needs this type of weapon? A2: Russian advances in offensive nuclear capabilities have often been justified as necessary to maintain the ability to strike the U.S. homeland following American investments in missile defense. Most recently, the announcement of the Golden Dome missile defense initiative, which intends to refocus U.S. homeland defenses on great-power competitors, was greeted with condemnation from the Kremlin.This argument is central in the case of the Burevestnik. Just weeks before the recent test, on September 22, Putin invoked Golden Dome—specifically the pursuit of space-based interceptors—to say that it “could nullify our efforts to maintain the status quo in the field of strategic offensive arms,” adding that Russia “will respond appropriately in this case.” While he did not explicitly reference Golden Dome in his announcement of the Burevestnik test, Putin touted the new missile’s ability to evade missile defenses.Putin’s concern about U.S. missile defense did not begin with Golden Dome. In 2018, Putin stated that the Burevestnik and several other new strategic weapons were necessary to preserve strategic stability, citing the 2002 withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty as destabilizing, a claim he has used repeatedly.Putin’s invocation of the threat from missile defense advancements is at odds with his own remarks from 2001. At that time, he stated that the U.S. departure from the ABM treaty would not disrupt mutually assured destruction between the two states, saying, “As is known, Russia, like the United States and unlike other nuclear powers, has long possessed an effective system to overcome anti-missile defense. So, I can say with full confidence that the decision made by the President of the United States does not pose a threat to the national security of the Russian Federation.”Q3: What does the Burevestnik have to do with missile defense? A3: Russia is incentivized to loudly decry U.S. missile defense efforts as destabilizing. Nevertheless, it is difficult to accept the narrative that U.S. missile defense investments are the root cause of the Russian decision to expand their offensive capabilities, especially when the United States has repeatedly attempted to accommodate Russian concerns.The intended effect of the U.S. departure from the ABM treaty was not the defeat of Russian capabilities—the departure enabled the United States to pursue homeland missile defense capabilities to protect against threats from rogue states. U.S. leaders pursued a number of confidence-building measures in parallel, including continued dialogue to bilaterally reduce offensive forces, increase transparency, and cooperate on joint missile defense exercises and development programs.The United States further accommodated Russian concerns in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in 2010. Article V of the treaty bans the conversion of offensive launchers for missile defense interceptors, a response to Russian concerns about the U.S. ability to reconvert silos to house missile defense interceptors, thereby reducing the time it would take to deploy additional offensive intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) beyond the number allowed under New START.The international environment has fundamentally changed since 2010, and not as a result of U.S. behavior, but of Russian aggression. The past 15 years have been rife with examples of Russian and Chinese nuclear modernization and force expansion, Russian aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere along its borders, and Russian nuclear saber-rattling to influence Western decisionmaking. A new era of great-power competition has begun, and the United States is adapting to an evolving threat environment. Adapting U.S. missile defense to deal with missile threats from across the spectrum is a reactive measure necessary to contend with Russian aggression.While it is true that the focus on missile defense will enhance the security of the U.S. homeland, it is unreasonable to assert that it would eliminate Russia’s second-strike capability, with or without nuclear modernization and expansion. To be sure, Golden Dome will protect selected assets in the United States. It will not, however, be an impenetrable shield rendering the entire United States invulnerable.The Golden Dome and other missile defense efforts contribute to de-escalation and stability, not the opposite. The strategic logic of the case is demonstrated by how the Russian military views its own investments in air and missile defense. In a 2025 Valdai Discussion Club meeting, President Putin stated that Russian air defenses have continuously adapted to Western missile threats, including the (very short range) ATACMS missile, and signaled his commitment to strengthen the Russian air defenses against weapons like the Tomahawk cruise missile.By no means will Golden Dome render nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete or disrupt strategic stability. On the contrary, a limited measure of air and missile defenses for the U.S. homeland—like Russian and Chinese air and missile defenses—contributes to deterrence by raising the threshold for attacks. Russia retains the ability to attack the United States with a significant number of its strategic forces, with or without these novel delivery systems.Q4: Is this technology new?A4: While the Burevestnik concept is relatively new to Russia, with reports of initial testing taking place around 2016, nuclear-powered cruise missiles are far from a novel concept. The United States pursued nuclear-powered ramjet technology between 1957 and 1964 through Project Pluto, a Cold War–era program aimed at developing a supersonic nuclear-powered cruise missile capable of striking deep into Soviet territory. The program achieved significant technical milestones, including successful ground tests of the nuclear-powered ramjet engine.There are good reasons why nuclear-powered cruise missiles or aircraft have not been pursued much since then. Despite its theoretical promise, Project Pluto was ultimately canceled due to a myriad of unresolved environmental and safety concerns. Testing the system posed risks, including the accidental irradiation of populated areas and uncontrolled release of radioactive material into the atmosphere, among other environmental factors.While the Burevestnik shares the technological legacy of Project Pluto, the two systems are not directly analogous. Project Pluto was particularly dangerous due to its unshielded reactor, which led to significant radiological leakage; advancements in the scientific understanding of radiation’s effects on the environment have evolved. However, these concerns persist with the testing of the Burevestnik missile: A 2019 test of the weapon likely resulted in the deaths of several Russian scientists.Q5: Why are cruise missiles difficult to intercept? A5: Unlike ballistic missiles, which follow high-altitude, predictable trajectories, cruise missiles travel at lower altitudes, closely following the contours of Earth’s terrain. This terrain-hugging flight profile allows them to remain under the radar horizon, reducing the defender’s reaction time to detect, track, and intercept the threat.Radar search horizons are limited by the curvature of the Earth. A typical surface-based radar has a search horizon of around 40 kilometers for a target at typical cruise missile altitudes. A subsonic cruise missile first detected at the horizon could reach the radar site in just over two minutes. In contrast, in an intercontinental ballistic missile attack, decisionmakers have up to 30 minutes before the interceptor reaches its target to react.These detection challenges span sensor phenomenologies. Cruise missiles do not have high thermal signatures. Space-based infrared sensors struggle to distinguish their low thermal signature against the Earth’s surface.Cruise missiles are by no means unstoppable. Great numbers of cruise missiles have been intercepted, including in recent conflicts in Ukraine, Israel, and the Red Sea. Ordinarily, flying at lower altitudes, where the air is more dense, increases drag and the amount of fuel expended. There is also a higher risk of crashes into the terrain without sophisticated guidance technologies.Nuclear propulsion solves one of these challenges because it reduces fuel limitations, enabling virtually unlimited range and sustained low-altitude flight without concern for efficiency. However, the challenge of navigating varied terrain persists—the risk of crashing a missile powered by a nuclear reactor before its intended target should raise concerns for both safety and collateral damage.Q6: How does the Burevestnik compare to U.S. nuclear delivery systems? A6: While Russia’s nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable cruise missile is grabbing headlines, the concept of deep, precision nuclear strike capability is not new. The foundational principle of the U.S. nuclear triad is to ensure a credible second-strike capability against nuclear-armed adversaries.Nuclear submarines provide the advantage of survivability, as they are difficult to track and target. Intercontinental ballistic missiles present a targeting dilemma: They number in the hundreds, are dispersed, and can be launched within minutes, making a successful preemptive strike nearly impossible. The bomber leg of the nuclear triad leverages both stealth and range. Platforms like the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber can execute missions lasting up to 40 hours with aerial refueling and evade detection by adversary air defense systems, enabling them to deliver precision strikes deep into Russian territory.The Burevestnik introduces a nuclear delivery system that combines the stealth and range of strategic bombers with the mobility and survivability of road-mobile platforms. Fundamentally, the weapon does not change the balance between the two states, nor does it affect Russia’s ability to hold the U.S. homeland at risk—the same mission can be effectively carried out using intercontinental ballistic missiles and other traditional nuclear weapons delivery systems. Q7: What does Putin hope to gain from this test? A7: The Burevestnik may still be a long way from operationalization; this test does not indicate that Russia intends to use the capability on the battlefield in Ukraine anytime soon. The repeated emphasis on the long range of the weapon and ability to overcome any missile defense system also indicates that the intended target would be the United States, not a regional adversary that Russia could strike with much cheaper shorter-range systems.Putin is using this test to create fear in the United States to discourage U.S. decisionmakers from pursuing policies that threaten Russian interests. It could contribute to the pattern of nuclear saber-rattling to influence U.S. decisionmaking in one or more areas, including influencing U.S. weapons transfers and policies in negotiations for a peace deal in Ukraine and encouraging the United States to agree to a one-year informal agreement to follow New START numerical limits—without inspections.Putin has demonstrated concern about long-range strikes into Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and before in 2019 and 2016. His outcry about Tomahawk missiles specifically and their destabilizing effects increased in early October 2025 after reports that the United States was considering sending a number of these missiles to Ukraine, which would allow the state to strike targets deeper in Russian territory. He called the move “a totally new stage in this escalation.”Advocates for the transfer of Tomahawks to Ukraine argue that increasing Kyiv’s ability to strike new targets could be a game changer in the conflict. After a two-and-a-half-hour phone call on October 16 between Trump and Putin, the Trump administration reversed course on the proposition. However, the possibility of backtracking remains on the table for the United States.Enter the Burevestnik. By testing a nuclear-armed cruise missile that could reach the U.S. homeland, Putin blurs the line between conventional and nuclear escalation to send a message about the potential response to a U.S. transfer of conventional Tomahawks or other long-range strike weapons to Ukraine.The message Putin hopes to send to the United States with this test likely extends to bilateral nuclear arms control efforts as well. On September 22, Putin proposed that both sides unilaterally observe the New START agreement for an additional year after its expiration on February 5, 2026—but without the verification or inspection from the original agreement.The Trump administration should examine the offer with caution. U.S. decisionmakers must ask what incentives are driving the Russian proposal. It is likely that Russia is facing a number of constraints limiting its ability to modernize and expand its nuclear forces in the absence of an agreement.The New START treaty sets quantitative limits on three categories of strategic offensive forces: launchers, deployed delivery vehicles (exclusively of ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles [SLBMs], and deployed heavy bombers), and deployed warheads. The cruise missile would not be subject to the treaty because it does not meet the definition of a strategic offensive weapon, regardless of whether it is nuclear powered or nuclear armed.With the Burevestnik, Putin could be looking to influence U.S. thinking about the state of Russian nuclear capabilities and its modernization efforts, making it appear that Russia could realistically modernize, diversify, and expand the numbers of its nuclear forces in the absence of a bilateral arms control agreement. The United States should be wary of Russia’s likely intent to use these kinds of tests and demonstrations to create fear among U.S. decisionmakers.Patrycja Bazylczyk is a program manager and research associate with the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Hannah Freeman is a program coordinator and research assistant with the Missile Defense Project at CSIS.Critical Questions is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).