European leaders visit Israel, seeking restraint on Iran
David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, acknowledged that Israel seemed certain to retaliate against Iran, despite calls for restraint from Israel's allies.
“It's clear that the Israelis are making the decision to act,” Cameron told the BBC shortly before meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We hope they do it in a way that does as little as possible to aggravate the situation.”
Israel's allies have joined other world leaders in repeatedly pressuring Netanyahu to avoid taking any action that could increase tensions with Iran, which fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend.
Israel's war cabinet has met several times since then to discuss when and how to respond, and officials are said to be considering a range of options, from a direct attack on Iran to a cyberattack or assassinations.
At least 17 killed in attack in Chernihiv, Ukraine
Three Russian missiles hit Chernihiv, north of Kiev, yesterday, killing 17 people and wounding dozens more, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed the deaths on Ukraine's lack of air defenses.
With U.S. military assistance largely suspended since the start of the year due to resistance from Republican lawmakers, Western-supplied air defense systems needed to shoot down near-daily Russian missile bombardments are running low on munitions.
Ukraine has sought to target Russian weapons at the source, both in occupied parts of Ukraine and within Russia itself. Explosions and fires were reported yesterday at a major Russian air base on the occupied Crimean peninsula, in what appeared to be a Ukrainian attack.
You said: Mike Johnson, the House speaker, has scheduled a vote this Saturday on foreign aid, including for Ukraine, despite resistance from his fellow Republicans, including those calling for his ouster.
Several areas of Oman received more than 230 millimeters of rain between Sunday and Wednesday. The average annual rainfall in Muscat, the nation's capital, is around 100 millimetres. The rain also blocked Dubai airport.
Experts said the extreme deluge was most likely the result of a regular rainfall system supercharged by climate change. Here are the images of the flood.
OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
The advent of consumer neurotechnologies, such as headbands that serve as meditation coaches, has opened up a new area of intimate data that companies can monetize: the electrical signals underlying our thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
A new law in the US state of Colorado targets consumer-level brain technologies to prevent companies from collecting vast amounts of highly sensitive brain data, sometimes over an unknown number of years, and sharing or selling the information to third parties.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
SPORTS NEWS
Ahead of schedule: The treble arrives for Paris Saint-Germain.
Defeat in Monte Carlo: Because Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic won't mind.
Andretti continues: Their latest plans for Formula 1, despite being rejected.
ARTS AND IDEAS
A new US-China podcast
Jane Perlez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Times bureau chief in Beijing, has spent much of her career writing about China. You talked about the rise of Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, and how the United States has struggled to respond to China's rise.
Now, Jane is exploring the origins of the rivalry and conflict between the two superpowers in her new podcast, “Face-Off: The US vs. China”. In the eight-episode series, Jane and her co-host, Rana Mitter, a Harvard historian, talk to diplomats, spies and even Yo-Yo Ma.
The podcast focuses on key aspects of the unraveling relationship – including near-misses between US spy planes and Chinese fighter jets, and Apple's compromises as the company courts China – to dig into how the two countries, once friends, they became adversaries.
“We try to provide some rationality and some ways to think about moving forward without the hysteria,” Jane told me. “We're trying to see China for what it is, which is a challenge, but it's something that the United States is extremely capable of dealing with.”
Watch the first three episodes here.