Andrew Fishman

Another very interesting piece from the WSJ. These details have been available through OSINT sources but it's a good roundup showing how key Europe is to US operations against Iran: - The central command center for US operations against Iran is within Ramstein Air Base in Germany (unsurprising) - US drone operations are conducted from there as well - American aircraft stationed in Spain have been relocated to France and Germany after the Spanish government denied the use of the Morón and Rota air bases for attacks on Iran - Bomber aircraft sortie out of bases in the UK like RAF Fairford - Refueling operations are based out of Aviano Air Base in Italy and Tubé Air Base in France - Lajes Air Base in the Azores (Portugal) is serving as a major logistical hub, with dozens of aircraft stationed there at various times during the conflict - RC-135 Rivet Joint spy planes are operating out of Souda Bay in Crete - Unspecified "logistics and intelligence assets" are being hosted by Romania The piece paints an amusing picture of European attitudes towards this. Keir Starmer's justification for overcoming his reticence to allow the US to base out of British facilities in the initial wave of strikes is that bomber operations are now "defensive" in nature. Merz has said publicly that this "isn't [Germany's] war," but he has no choice but to allow US operations out of German air bases due to pre-existing legal agreements. Meloni has spun Italian involvement as minor because only refueling missions are flown out of Aviano. Similarly, French defense minister Vautrin said, “a refueling aircraft is a gas station, not a fighter jet." These technicalities may work on the European public, but it's difficult to imagine they'll work on the Iranians.

⚡️NEW: U.S.-Israeli strikes hit energy and water infrastructure in Isfahan, Khorramshahr, and Bushehr, according to Iranian media and local accounts. Fars News said the attacks damaged a gas administration building and gas reduction station on Kaveh Street in Isfahan, a major city in central Iran, along with nearby homes. In Khorramshahr, a port city in southwestern Iran near the Iraqi border, a projectile struck the area around the power plant gas line, though officials said there were no casualties. Separately, in Bushehr, a southern Gulf province already facing water shortages, a key desalination facility and the adjacent meteorological office were struck. Yousef Sobhani-Nasab, head of the Bushehr Airport Meteorological Office, was killed while on duty, according to Tasnim news. The facility plays a key role in forecasting and managing water resources and agriculture in the water-scarce province, and it is unclear why U.S.-Israel targeted it. 🎥 Purported footage of strike on Bushehr:

🇨🇺 Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio: “Yesterday we published that 96,000 Cubans are waiting for surgery as a result of lack of fuel and lack of energy, among them 11,000 children. So I would think that the American people would feel, why does our government treat the whole population of Cuba in this way? And I hope that the people of the United States would understand that it’s not correct to treat another nation in the way the U.S. is doing it simply to try to achieve political goals.” Watch this full exchange. Additional key excerpts highlighted in the replies: ⬇️

South Lebanon is not just rubble & headlines. Between the towns, villages, & hills lies a landscape of extraordinary beauty: fertile valleys, olive groves, rivers, abundant water resources, ancient archaeological sites, & breathtaking natural vistas that rarely make it into the news. This is the region Israel has devastated; villages flattened, towns emptied, over 1 million Lebanese displaced since the escalation began. Yet within the last 48 hours, prominent Israeli voices have openly advocated expanding into southern Lebanon & establishing permanent settlements there, some invoking biblical claims & framing the Litani River as Israel's natural northern border. At the same time, ultra-orthodox & settler-linked groups (tied to Uri Tsafon) have been advertising properties in southern Lebanon for sale on their websites, listings treating Lebanese land as already controllable, with starting prices around 300,000 shekels ($80,000), urging "return to ancestral land." The Litani River itself has been a coveted strategic water resource for Israel since early Zionist proposals in 1919, when leaders like Chaim Weizmann argued for its inclusion in the Jewish homeland to support agriculture & immigration - ambitions echoed by Ben-Gurion & Dayan, who viewed it as Israel's natural northern border. This is not merely about security buffers or temporary military needs. It is about land acquisition, demographic engineering, annexation, and permanent expansion under the cover of war. The footage and stills show what they are trying to take: a region of profound natural, historical, and cultural richness. This is what is at stake, & what the resistance is fighting against, & will not allow to materialise. This is what the headlines rarely show. This is what they are trying to steal. 😔🕊️

⚡JUST IN - Netherlands, Iceland join genocide case against Israel