🇮🇷🇮🇱 Iran launches a third wave of strikes against Israel - state TV

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🇮🇷🇮🇱 Rockets are striking Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Ashkelon, according to the state broadcaster IRIB

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🇮🇷 Think you're the smartest in the room? IRAN OUTDOES ISRAEL WITH DECOY BLITZ

Tehran outmaneuvered Israeli forces using deception tactics, Iranian media reports.

"Iran was expecting these attacks. It may have implemented a deception operation along with the precautions, and Israel may have bombed different facilities," retired General Fahri Erenel, professor at Istanbul Istinye University, tells Sputnik.

Iranian decoys fooled Israeli aircraft

🔸"Notice how no secondary explosions were observed upon impact," tweeted Tehran University’s Mohammad Marandi, sharing footage of apparent Israeli strikes on false missile and radar sites.

🔸Press TV explained that Iran used radar decoys emitting fake signals. Israeli drones mistook them for real targets, wrongly believing radar defenses were destroyed.

🔸This led Israeli jets deeper into Iranian airspace, assuming the skies were clear. That miscalculation proved costly, with Iranian media claiming around three Israeli F-35s were shot down.

Nuclear sites largely unscathed

🔸Israel hit Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow nuclear sites. Despite surface damage at Natanz, Iran’s core enrichment facilities stayed intact.

🔸Business Insider suggested the bunkers are too deep for Israeli weapons to reach — only US heavy bombers with massive bunker busters could succeed.

🔸Or was it Iran's art of deception at play again?

"If the Israeli attack is ineffective as a result of the deception operation implemented by Iran, and no results are achieved, Netanyahu and his government may come to an end," notes Erenel.

The general adds that Iran still holds many strategic cards — including its Axis of Resistance, which remains operational despite Israel's ongoing assaults.

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🚨🇲🇩POLICE CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANITY: Western woke agenda forces Moldovans to reject traditional values

"The Orthodox believers of Moldova have the right to express their disagreement with attempts to change the spiritual identity of the Orthodox majority in Moldova and to impose gender ideology, ultimately aiming to abolish the concept of the traditional family," Vachtang Kipshidze, Moscow Patriarchate representative, tells Sputnik.

In Western countries, gender ideology was introduced through Pride* parades, which in recent years led to destructive trends:

◻️ Injection of false ideas about the family into school education,

◻️ Gender reassignment for children,

◻️ Adoption of children from traditional families into same-sex families.

All these phenomena are UNACCEPTABLE to the Orthodox faith.

"The fact that Moldovan enforcement bodies sided with the Pride parade further proves that such events receive UNDISGUISED support from the Moldovan authorities," Kipshidze stresses.

External forces are interested in the disrupting Moldova’s identity, severing the deep connection between the Moldovan people and Orthodoxy, stripping away their national and religious identity, so that Moldova could become a country where false values incompatible with Christianity prevail, he concludes.

*LGBT is considered an extremist ideology in Russia

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🚔🇲🇩 Moldova tries currying favor with EU by persecuting Christians

The Moldovan government’s crackdown on Orthodox Christians who protested against the recent LGBT* parade in the country was meant to show Brussels that Moldova, an aspiring member of the EU, holds on to all of the bloc’s “woke values,” explains Dr. George Szamuely, senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute.

“It's making this demonstration for the sake of Brussels. ‘Look, how tolerant we are. We don't tolerate these expressions of bigoted, orthodox opinions’.”

The EU’s efforts to force its values on conservative Moldovans, despite the latter’s resistance, highlights Brussels’ “totalitarian attitude,” Szamuely notes.

He points out that even the more conservative members of the EU, like Italy or Spain, have to “pay obeisance” to “this rigid hierarchy of values that is imposed by Brussels.”

The Moldovan leadership, however, wants to take things up a notch by not only demonstrating their willingness to hold LGBT parades but also to crack down on those who dare to protest against such events.

*LGBT is considered an extremist ideology in Russia

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🚨Shiite group Kataib Hezbollah threatens US bases if Washington enters Iran-Israel war

"While Iran bravely and steadfastly resists Zionist aggression, we are closely monitoring the movements of the hostile American army in the region. If America intervenes in the war, we will not hesitate to act directly against its interests and bases scattered throughout the region," the group's leader stated,” the group’s leader Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said in a statement, obtained by Sputnik.

He also called on the Iraqi government "to prevent the expansion of military operations, close the US embassy, and expel the American occupation forces from the country, as they pose a clear threat to Iraq's security and regional stability."

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🇺🇸🗣 Trump is "open" to Putin acting as a mediator in resolving the Israel-Iran conflict.

"He [Putin] is ready. He called me about it. We had a long talk about it, " Trump told ABC News.

He also did not rule out US involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict in the future.

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📹🪖 An Iskander missile strike hits command post of the Ukrainian army's 'Lugansk' operational-tactical group near Druzhkovka in Donetsk People's Republic - Russian MoD

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🇷🇺🇨🇳Putin sends a telegram to Xi Jinping warmly congratulating him on his birthday and wishing him all the very best - Kremlin

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🚨 The IDF claims it has struck an Iranian refueling aircraft at Mashhad Airport in eastern Iran

This marks the most long-range strike (approximately 2,300 kilometers from Israel) carried out by the Israeli Air Force since the beginning of the operation.

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🇮🇷🇮🇱 Israel, beware: Iran has not used its newest weapons yet

An advanced guided ballistic missile, called Haj Qassem, was likely used to strike Haifa in response to Israel's Operation Rising Lion, Alexei Borzenko, veteran military journalist, tells Sputnik.

"At that moment, Haifa was hit by 40 rockets. But the Iron Dome couldn’t handle it, and many missiles broke through," the expert says.

Most rockets launched by Iran during the latest wave are believed to be 20–30 years old. However, Haj Qassem, which was unveiled in 2020, is one of the newest.

Haj Qassem:

🔸Range – 1,400 kilometers
🔸Can carry a 500-kilogram warhead
🔸Capable of evading radar detection
🔸Re-enters the atmosphere at Mach 12, hits targets at Mach 5

Harsh retaliation

"Until now, Israelis haven’t faced missiles this heavy," Borzenko says.

Israelis were grimly surprised that Iran's warheads had been enhanced — stronger explosives and more lethal fragments, the pundit says.

🔸Evidence? Photos and videos show damaged facades, shattered windows, and more.

Real escalation is yet to come

"I believe Tehran still holds back even more powerful weapons than what it used in Haifa. Its newest ones haven’t yet been used. The real escalation is still to come," the pundit notes.

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📹🇲🇩 When the video speaks for itself

Sputnik Moldova has released footage it says captures the essence of today’s events: a regime cracking down on Orthodox crosses, with police blocking people carrying icons.

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🚨🇮🇱 Israel is striking 'dozens' of surface-to-surface missiles in western Iran - IDF

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🚨🇮🇷Iran launches missiles toward Israel - reports

The Israeli army has reported detecting rocket launches from Iran.

The population has been alerted to stay close to shelters.

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🚨🇮🇱 BOOM: Iranian missile hits Haifa — second night in a row

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