Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar implies Ukraine should be grateful for “Israeli support”:

It’s a bit surprising coming from a country that we supported in international forums, supported in so many ways, including humanitarian help…

But probably this is life.

Trump:

I’ve always wanted to live in Buckingham Palace!!!

I’ll talk to the King and Queen about this in a few minutes!!!

Timothy Ash | Russia & Eurasia Expert | Chatham House:
 

Question: Could European reluctance toward Türkiye be just outright racism?
 
There is quite a lot of that. In continental Europe, there is institutional racism against Türkiye. Let's be honest about it.
 
Remember Chirac's comments on Turkish-EU accession - "the French people will decide." Then Sarkozy & Merkel with the privileged partnership. The pattern is clear.
 
The irony - in recent months we saw Türkiye deploy its drone carrier with significant troop deployments in defense of Germany during Baltic military exercises.
 
Türkiye can provide quick solutions to Europe's defense problems. Europe just needs to get over its Türkiye-phobia.

FULL INTERVIEW

Trump:

Iran has just informed us that they are in a “State of Collapse.” They want us to “Open the Hormuz Strait,” as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!). Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Timothy Ash | Russia & Eurasia Expert | Chatham House:
 

Türkiye's first decade under Erdoğan was a real reform agenda - anchored by EU accession & the IMF program.
 
There was record foreign investment, investment grade rating & the only time the central bank hit its 5% inflation target. The EU anchor drove that.
 
It went off track when France & Germany started talking about a "privileged partnership." Türkiye realized it wasn't a level playing field.
 
Bulgaria & Romania were let in to EU despite being poorer & having serious rule of law issues, while Türkiye brought more to the table.
 
With US disengagement from Europe, I hope Europe finally reawakens to the opportunities of deeper engagement with Türkiye - for Europe's defense & for Türkiye's reform process itself.
 
But first, Europe must battle its own prejudices.

FULL INTERVIEW

Christian Turner, Britain’s ambassador in Washington, said in leaked private remarks that the United States’ only real “special relationship” is probably with Israel rather than the UK.

Source: FT

Trump:

American patriots today can sing My Country, 'Tis of Thee only because our colonial ancestors first sang God Save the King.

Trump jokes:

My mother had a crush on Charles.

Trump:

Americans have had no closer friends than the British.

Türkiye and Armenia held a meeting today in Kars to move forward with reopening the Kars–Gyumri railway.

Both sides stressed the importance of launching the line soon to improve regional transport and connectivity as part of their normalization process.

Israeli soldier shows Beit Hanoun, Gaza totally destroyed.

Not a single house in the town remains standing.

Prof. John Mearsheimer

The Iranians are not going to give up control of the strait… that’s their leverage. They’d be crazy to give up control of the strait.

We’ve basically lost this war.

You’re going to end up making concessions to the Iranians.

Prof. John Mearsheimer on Iran:

They’re negotiating with Netanyahu’s puppets. They don’t want to deal with those two.

They see Kushner as essentially an Israeli proxy, and Witkoff—not only as a Zionist—but also as someone who has demonstrated massive incompetence in negotiations with both the Iranians and the Russians.

Prof. John Mearsheimer on Iran:

Israelis may use nuclear weapons against Iran to deal with nuclear problem.

The future here is bleak.

Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli says Israel is establishing a new “border line” with Lebanon:

Even during this so-called ceasefire, the IDF continues destroying infrastructure and effectively stabilizing the new border line of the State of Israel.

Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli:

We have a very significant challenge with the younger generation, and these conspiracy theories coming from Megyn Kelly — who, unfortunately, used to be a voice very supportive of the State of Israel — or from Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson and others — these voices are causing serious damage to the future generation of, yes, the Republican Party.

And this creates, looking ahead — even if currently there is a significant majority for Trump — because the younger generation is highly exposed to social media, podcasts, discourse on Twitter, and all these things — this definitely creates a strategic problem for the State of Israel.

Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli:

We had an embargo led by the Biden administration.

Bombs for our airplanes could not be delivered.

And this all changed after Trump came into power.

We are so thankful for the bravery of Trump and his team — Vance, Rubio, and Hegseth — this is a tremendous administration.

19-year-old Israeli soldier Idan Fox was killed in southern Lebanon in a Hezbollah drone attack.

He had not yet received his high school diploma before his death.

Israel’s Education Minister visited his family and personally handed the diploma to his parents.

Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli:

If your God is commanding to massacre and rape innocent women, to massacre children in front of their parents, then we’re not speaking about religion.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has ordered major American chip equipment firms to halt certain shipments to China’s Hua Hong Semiconductor over concerns it could produce advanced AI chips.

The move is part of efforts to limit China’s semiconductor progress and could cost U.S. companies billions.

Source: Reuters

CENTCOM:

Earlier today in the Arabian Sea, U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit boarded M/V Blue Star III, a commercial ship suspected of attempting to transit to Iran in violation of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

U.S. forces released the vessel after conducting a search and confirming the ship’s voyage would not include an Iranian port call.