NightOwl

The US is supporting Ukraine’s attack on Kursk and has said Ukrainian forces are allowed to use US-provided weapons in the ground incursion into Russia. For the first two years of the war, the US prohibited Ukraine from striking Russian territory with US-provided missiles but recently lifted that restriction in the wake of Russia’s offensive in Kharkiv.

The Pentagon has said the US still does not want Ukraine to launch “long-range strikes” with US-provided weapons but has not defined how far into Russian territory would be too far. Zelensky is asking the US to lift all restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US weapons.

Analysts have long warned that Netanyahu has refused to agree a deal with the Palestinian resistance for a prisoner exchange and ceasefire because an end of the war on Gaza would mean an end to his political career. Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three cases filed in 2019. He can be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail and/or a fine if convicted in a bribery case.

Netanyahu has previously said any deal would need to allow Israel to continue to bomb Gaza.

“The underlying problem here is that the RCMP is presuming that a person who is engaged in environmental activism, necessarily, is a higher risk for engaging in criminal behaviour — that somehow, that you're voicing dissent, that you pose a risk of criminality,” Jack said, “and that that gives the police the authority to be investigating you, following you, collecting information about you.”

Soon after Soleimani's slaying in Baghdad, Iraqi lawmakers voted for the immediate expulsion of U.S. troops. Trump then began a reduction of the number of soldiers in Iraq and his successor, President Joe Biden, declared an end to the "combat" mission of U.S. personnel against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in the country the following year, yet neither opted for a total exit.

Today, around 2,500 U.S. troops remain in the country on a training and advisory mission. Discussions over their fate and that of the broader U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement began earlier this year through the U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission, but the Pentagon has signaled no plans to pull U.S. forces out entirely, further fueling calls for an end to the informal truce with militias.

"The origin of the American presence is illegal and illegitimate," Asadi said, "especially after the parliamentary decision to end the American military presence in Iraq, as well as the million-strong demonstrations of the Iraqi people to expel the occupying forces."

The poll, conducted by the Forsa Institute, found that 49% of Germans think the new missile deployment is “not right,” while 45% support the idea. Opposition is stronger among Germans living in states that used to be East Germany, with 74% of them against the plan.

The US announced the deployment in a joint statement with Germany, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing opposition to the plan from within his own party and coalition government.

“Not every weapon makes Germany immediately safer,” Rolf Mützenich, the parliamentary leader of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SDP), told POLITICO. Mützenich previously warned that the “danger of an unintentional military escalation is considerable.”

"For years, former war and crisis regions have been a source of firearms and the illegal trade in them," the BKA report said.

"The countries of the Western Balkans in particular are still in the spotlight due to the high availability of firearms there, even more than 30 years after the end of the wars," it noted.

Most of these weapons are smuggled via land routes. Organized, illegal smuggling of firearms from Ukraine into Germany has not yet been detected, according to the BKA.