Russia's Anger, Turkey's Ambition, and Iran's Revenge - Three Of The Big Players Begin To Build Up Their Friendships And Assemble Armies Ready To Destroy Israel In The Ezekiel 38 and 39 Battles.

 

The Road To Ezekiel 38: Russia's Anger, Turkey's Ambition, Iran's Revenge

Three nations. Three different ambitions. Yet all increasingly find themselves united by common adversaries—and all appear together in the pages of Ezekiel 38.

The Purge Begins: Biblical Pastors Need Not Apply

The beginning of a theological purge? The Presbyterian Church has approved a system that allows churches to screen pastors based on their views of LGBTQ theology before they are ever seriously considered for ministry.

Canada's New Ministry of Truth? Why Christians Should Be Paying Attention

Once government has greater access to your information, what will it do with it? The answer should concern every Canadian as reports show officials exploring legal action against Canadians who post what the government determines to be "false and misleading information" on social media.

Iran's supreme leader absent as senior officials attend crowded ayatollah's funeral

 Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was conspicuously absent from his father's funeral, as senior regime figures joined thousands paying their respects to the late ayatollah on Sunday.

Ali Khamenei's other three sons - Masoud, Mostafa and Meysam - all attended the service on Sunday, alongside officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi. 

Speculation about Mojtaba's condition - fuelled by rumours he was wounded in the same US-Israel air strikes that killed his father - has continued as he has not appeared in public since his appointment in early March.

The elder Khamenei ruled the Islamic republic from 1989 until his death in February.

Official funeral proceedings for the late supreme leader began on Friday, with events planned across Iran and Iraq over the coming week.

Iranian authorities say 12-20 million people are expected to attend the ceremonies, which they are calling the "funeral of the century".

Khamenei's body is currently lying in state at Tehran's Grand Mosalla religious complex, with a funeral service led by prominent Shia cleric Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old scholar who teaches at seminaries in the holy city of Qom.

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cevllyj9vv3o

Ukraine warns of interceptor missile shortage as 15 killed in Kyiv region

The Ukrainian Air Force says a "serious shortage" of interceptor missiles meant none of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia at Kyiv on Sunday night were shot down.

At least 12 people were killed in the second large-scale Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital in a week, Kyiv's top military administrator said. Three more were killed in the wider Kyiv region, emergency officials added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed for allies to take "strong decisions" at the this week's Nato summit to provide Kyiv with air defences. 

After the attack, he said the Ukrainian military had been successful in intercepting cruise missiles and drones – but not ballistic missiles.

Sunday's "massive Russian attack" consisted of 68 missiles and 351 strike drones, he said in a post on X. Kyiv's top military administrator, Timur Tkachenko, said 49 were people injured in the capital, with Zelenksy saying there were 16 injuries in the wider region.

Ukraine's Air Force said the attack was repelled by "aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine."

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewqqnd7zdwo

Netanyahu Dismisses Rumor of Rift with Trump, Rejects Vance's Remark About Israel's Friends

 

Israel Ready to Strike; Netanyahu Denies Trump Rift; Iran Reappoints ‘Judge of Death’; with Trump; IDF Chief Warns Hezbollah; Did US Betray Israel? History in Hebron;

Netanyahu Dismisses Rumor of Rift with Trump, Rejects Vance's Remark About Israel's Friends Read Now US Warned Iran of Possible Israeli Assassination Attempts Read Now Iran Reappoints ‘Judge of Death,’ Despite Predictions that He Would be Replaced Read Now WATCH: Anti-Trump Banner Unfurled Ahead of NATO Visit Watch Now Israel Ready to Strike if Hezbollah Breaches Truce, Warns IDF Chief Read Now

Israel Confirms it Deployed Iron Dome Batteries to Arab Country

 

Future of US Aid to Israel in Doubt; Imam Cites Tucker Carlson; Former Hostage Performs on US Aircraft Carrier; Fake Gun Used to Terrorize Jews

Oct. 7 Architect Planned Much Larger, Deadlier Invasion of Israel Read Now Israel Confirms it Deployed Iron Dome Batteries to Arab Country Read Now WATCH: Trump Hilariously Watches Live News Feed of Himself Watch Now Iran Says it will ‘Definitely’ Charge Fees for Hormuz Passage Read Now IDF Preparing Major Cuts with Future of US Aid in Doubt Read

Trump Says Bibi ‘Knows Who the Boss Is’ as Meeting Nears

 

REVEALED: Iran Building Nuclear Facility While Talking with US; Mamdani Blasts USA at ‘America 250’ Speech; Majority of US Jews Hide Identity

Trump Says Bibi ‘Knows Who the Boss Is’ as Meeting Nears Read Now WATCH: Netanyahu's Independence Day Message to America Watch Now Iran’s Regime: ‘No Choice but to Build the Nuclear Bomb’ Read Now REVEALED: Iran Building Nuclear Facility While Negotiating with US Read Now WATCH: Knesset Lights Up Red, White, and Blue Honoring America’s 250th Birthday Watch Now Mojtaba Khamenei Barred from Attending Father’s Funeral Amid Assassination Fears Read Now ‘DARK AND VINDICTIVE’: Mamdani Blasts USA at 'America 250’ Speech Read Now

Large crowds gather in Tehran on first day of Ayatollah Khamenei's funeral

 Large crowds of black-clad mourners have gathered outside Tehran's main mosque to pay their respects to Iran's former supreme leader on the first day of his funeral commemorations.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's body is currently lying in state at the Grand Mosalla, ahead of his burial in his hometown of Mashhad next Thursday.

Authorities expect 15-20 million people to attend the ceremonies across Iran and Iraq over the coming days, which take place more than four months after Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli strikes. 

Masses of supporters of the Islamic regime turned out on Saturday morning, reportedly chanting slogans against the US and in support of revenge for the ayatollah's killing.

"We came [to the funeral] because we promised the supreme leader we would stand by him to the very end," 37-year-old professor Reza told news agency AFP in the Grand Mosalla's courtyard.

"For a long time, we shouted that we would sacrifice our lives for the leader, but it was he who sacrificed himself for us."

Arash Rahimi, 40, told Reuters: "Everyone here has come to avenge the blood of their supreme leader.

"As our leader has said, we have a blood feud with the United States. Our relations with the United States will never be good."

Khamenei was killed during joint Israeli and US strikes on Iran in late February, in what quickly spiralled into a wider regional conflict.

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0ky2zen1kgo

How Iran's new regime is very different to what came before

 When US President Donald Trump signed a ceasefire agreement with Iran during dinner at the Palace of Versailles last month, many saw an irony.

His host, French President Emanuel Macron, may have wanted to make sure the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed before Trump changed his mind, and possibly calculated that the gilded Hall of Mirrors would appeal to his guest. 

But the choice of venue inevitably invited comparisons between the one-and-a-half page agreement and the extremely lengthy Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919 at the end of World War One. The 1919 treaty reshaped Europe, but its demands for huge reparations left an angry and embittered Germany and helped to set the stage for another global conflagration just 20 years later.

Might the Iran deal, different in so many ways, nevertheless come to be seen as similarly fateful? Almost three weeks later, a fragile ceasefire more or less holds. But after several skirmishes in and around the Strait of Hormuz, and with none of the issues that led to war anywhere close to being resolved, the situation in the Middle East looks every bit as precarious as it did before.

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg534ryp660o

Ukraine hits major oil terminal in Russia's St Petersburg

 A major oil terminal in Russia's north-western city of St Petersburg was struck overnight by Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Ukrainian president described it as key "infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia's war". Ukraine also said a major Russian naval base in the region was hit.

St Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov said the city had been under a "massive" drone attack, admitting the oil terminal was hit but saying there had been no casualties. 

 

Ukraine has recently intensified its long-range drone attacks on Russia's critical energy infrastructure, causing widespread fuel shortages. Kyiv says nearly 43% of Russia's oil refining capacity has been "disabled" as a result.

The BBC has not independently verified this figure.

Ukraine says Russian oil and gas facilities are legitimate targets as Moscow relies heavily on fossil fuel exports to finance its full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin - who last week made a rare admission that fuel shortages had been caused by Ukrainian attacks - on Saturday signed into law a bill aimed at boosting supplies to the domestic fuel market.

FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j2vmzxezro