Attacks on nuclear sites pose global risks and cannot be justified, according to Russia's ambassador to the UN

Russia's envoy to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, has condemned Israel's recent airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, the diplomat said West Jerusalem was acting with impunity, backed by the West.

Israel launched the strikes on uranium enrichment sites in Iran on Friday and killed several senior commanders and scientists in targeted assassination operations, claiming the moves were preemptive steps to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran, which denies pursuing a military nuclear program, responded by launching multiple volleys of ballistic missiles at Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv.

Nebenzia said Israel had apparently intended to sabotage the indirect US-Iran nuclear talks which had been scheduled to resume Sunday. Tehran has declared that the strikes have effectively ended any diplomatic pathway.

"This is a completely unprovoked attack - whatever Israel may claim to the contrary - and it constitutes a gross violation of the UN Charter and international law. Responsibility for all the consequences of these actions rests entirely with the Israeli leadership and those who condone them."

• The Russian ruble has staged a stunning rally in 2025, emerging as the world's top-performing currency so far this year.
• According to the Bank of America, it has been the best-performing currency since the start of the year.

In the midst of a long-drawn war, declining oil prices, stiff sanctions, and an economy that's on the downhill, Russia's ruble has been rising.

In fact, it is the world's best-performing currency so far this year, according to Bank of America, with gains of over 40%. The ruble's stunning rally in 2025 marks a sharp reversal from the past two years when the currency had depreciated dramatically.

What's powering the Russian currency?

The strength in the ruble has less to do with a sudden jump in foreign investors' confidence than with capital controls and policy tightening, market watchers told CNBC. The weakness in the dollar comes as an added bonus.

According to the Libyan authorities, preacher Abu Hafs' real name is Benjamin Efraim, an Israeli national operating in one of Mossad's special units which conduct espionage operations in Arab and Islamic countries.

The Libyan authorities said the Mossad spy has started his career in Libya by leading a 200-member ISIS-affiliated group and moved to Benghazi in disguise as a preacher.

According to them, Abu Hafs had attempted to infiltrate Egypt, adding that the group, under his command, is among the most barbaric terrorist groups which had threatened to export war to Egypt.

The Mossad assassins could have felt only satisfaction when the news broke that they had succeeded in killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas military commander, in Dubai last month.

The Israeli government's refusal to comment on the death has once more gained worldwide publicity for Mossad, its feared intelligence service. Its ruthless assassinations were made famous by the film Munich, which detailed Mossad's attacks on the terrorists who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Long ago, the agency had established that silence is the most effective way to spread terror among its Arab enemies.

In the past year, al-Mabhouh had moved to the top of Mossad's list of targets, each of which must be legally approved under guidelines laid down over half a century ago by Meir Amit, the most innovative and ruthless director-general of the service. Born in Tiberius, King Herod's favourite city, Amit had established the rules for assassination.

A look inside Israel's 'Fortress of Zion' military command center beneath the heart of Tel Aviv

The country's military and intelligence commanded the recent assault on Hamas in Gaza from an underground bunker made for high-tech air wars.

It was a little past midnight on Friday, and Israel's Supreme Command Post was racing to complete as many strikes as possible in the final hours before a cease-fire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas was to take effect at 2 a.m.

On a wall covered with huge screens, a three-dimensional diagram of a high-rise building with one of its apartments marked in red popped up. On another screen, a live video from the air circled above a building in Gaza that looked a lot like the one in the diagram.

A federal appeals court ruled that President Donald Trump could retain control of the California National Guard, blocking a decision from a district court judge ordering Trump to yield power to Governor Gavin Newsom following anti-ICE riots.

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday night granted an emergency motion from the Trump administration to block a ruling from District Judge Charles Breyer saying Trump violated the law when he ordered the National Guard into Los Angeles. Trump celebrated the decision, saying that the National Guard was to thank for keeping Los Angeles safe.

"The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe," Trump posted on Truth Social Friday morning. "If I didn't send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!"

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling government coalition stands on the brink of being toppled by a bill that would dissolve the country's parliament and force new elections, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has controversially inserted himself into the country's domestic affairs by lobbying ultra-Orthodox members of Netanyahu's coalition -- urging them to rethink their plans to vote in favor of the measure.

The rebellion by the ultra-Orthodox parties springs from their anger over the prospect of ultra-Orthodox youth being included in the country's military draft -- after having been exempt from conscription since Israel's 1948 founding. Last summer, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the government must start drafting the Haredi men, who typically dedicate their entire lives to religious study. Since then, the ultra-Orthodox have been pushing hard for the Knesset to pass legislation to render the Supreme Court decision on the subject moot. With the IDF poised to conscript 54,000 Haredi yeshiva students in July, the parties have been boycotting various votes and are now poised to tip the scales in favor of new elections.

Let's cut to the chase. The devastating attack on Iran by the psychopathological genocidal "chosen" ethno-supremacist set up in Tel Aviv - a de facto declaration of war - was coordinated in detail with the President of the United States, Circus Ringmaster Donald Trump.

This infantilism-afflicted Narcissus Drowned in the Pool of his Own Image gave away the game, himself, in a rambling post. Selected highlights:

"I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal". No "deal"; actually his unilateral demands. After all, he torpedoed the original deal, the JCPOA, because it was not his "deal".

"I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told." The decision to strike had already been made.

"Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but (...) they are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!" Gloating comes with the territory.

"The next already planned attacks being even more brutal." Total alignment with the trademark Israeli "decapitation" strategy.

"Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire". It was Persian (italics mine) Empire - but after all this is a man who doesn't read, or study. Notice the Art of Diplomacy: Take my deal, or drop dead.

This - incandescent - decade was launched by an assassination, of Gen. Soleimani in Baghdad, as I emphasized in my 2021 book Raging Twenties. He was on a diplomatic mission. The green light personally came from then President of the United States, Donald Trump.

The mid-Raging Twenties is now hurled to the brink of a devastating war in West Asia, with global repercussions, by the serial assassination of the IRGC leadership, in Tehran, by the psycho-genocidal Zionist entity. After an elaborate kabuki of deception, the green light to Tel Aviv - go ahead and do it - also came from the President of the United States, Trump 2.0 (who claimed he was "aware'' of the attacks).

Iran's Intelligence Ministry has revealed that it has obtained key documents on Israel's secret nuclear program. This weapon has allowed Tel Aviv to dominate the entire Middle East for half a century, while accusing Iran — which does not have it — of seeking to compete. Even though Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, these documents could significantly alter the attitude of the nuclear states China, the United States, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, and the United Kingdom toward Israel.

This announcement comes on the eve of a new round of negotiations between the United States and Iran.

Negotiations between the United States and Iran, with the invaluable mediation of Oman, have reached a decisive point where each side is laying out its key cards in this tight strategic game that will have profound repercussions in the Middle East and on the borders of Russia, China, and India.

In the recent telephone conversation between Trump and Putin, it is notable that two-thirds of the hour and a quarter of dialogue [ 1 ] was devoted to the Iranian nuclear issue - only a quarter was devoted to Ukraine, where Trump endorsed Moscow's controlled retaliation - when the Russian president agreed to be an important mediator [ 2 ] .

Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian military airfields earlier this month were a "Western intelligence operation" orchestrated by the CIA and MI6, American public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs has claimed.

In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson released on Wednesday, Sachs accused Western intelligence services of covertly working to undermine peace efforts aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict, acting on orders from the US "deep state."