JD Vance ‘made viewers feel safe,’ while Walz seemed to have brain freeze or senior moments – psychiatrist

💬 Republican Senator JD Vance “projected a steady, self-assured persona that made viewers feel safe,” Dr. Carole Lieberman, a board-certified psychiatrist and best-selling author based in Beverly Hills, California, told Sputnik commenting on his vice-presidential debate with Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.

Walz’s “discordant words and body movements made viewers feel uncomfortable,” she argued. He was “clearly nervous and his body language showed a lot of telltale signs of lying, such as fidgeting, touching his face and breathing rapidly.”

🔸 The debate began with a possible pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran. “Tim Walz stuttered and stumbled over his answer. He gave misinformation about Trump and a deal with Iran, but never answered the question. JD Vance, on the other hand, answered with, ‘It is up to Israel,’ which is the best answer,” the psychiatrist said.

🔸 On immigration, which Walz knew was a weak spot because Kamala Harris “as the Border Czar that had let everyone in,” he again started blaming Donald Trump. “It was obvious that his preparation for the debate focused on trying to blame Trump for everything,” Lieberman said.

🔸 Vance answered a question about hurricanes and climate change “in a straightforward manner, whereas Tim Walz started grimacing, making jarring movements and having pauses that seemed like brain freeze or senior moments,” she noted.

Vance won “because he was authentic throughout and his words matched his body language,” the psychiatrist concluded.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

It took 12 years to realize: The EU Council recognized Julian Assange as a political prisoner

88 members of the Council voted in favor of the adoption of the relevant resolution, 13 against, 20 abstained.

After 12 years of imprisonment — seven years behind the walls of the Ecuadorian Embassy and five years in a British prison — the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly has voted to confirm that Julian Assange was held as a political prisoner.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥🔥🔥 Russian pensioners call out P. Diddy

The elderly women note that the disgraced rapper had close ties with former US President Barack Obama.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Endless incursions? A deep dive into Israel's military assaults on Lebanon

The recent launch of “restricted ground raids” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon marks yet another chapter in Israel's longstanding conflict with its northern neighbor.

Sputnik explores the intricate history behind these incursions.

2024 Operation Northern Arrows: A total of five Israeli brigades have been deployed to the Israel-Lebanon border amid reports that not all of them are expected to take part in the operation, which has already claimed the lives of over 1,500 people.

2006 Operation Just Reward, also known as the Second Lebanon War in Israel: The IDF launched a major ground offensive aimed at dismantling Hezbollah, but ultimately fell short of this objective. The ensuing 34 days of intense fighting culminated in Israel agreeing to a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire.

1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath: The 17-day assault’s goal was to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River and out of reach of Israeli targets. The operation ended with a ceasefire that prohibited attacks on civilians.

1993 Operation Accountability: Israel initiated it in retaliation for Hezbollah's counterattacks on Israeli positions. The conflict concluded with a temporary truce reached through an oral agreement.

1982 Operation Peace for Galilee, also known as the First Lebanon War: The IDF launched a full-blown second invasion of southern Lebanon, claiming it was a response to attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

1978 Operation Litani: It saw Israel’s first large-scale invasion of Lebanon, carried out by the IDF in order to expel PLO forces from the territory and establish a narrow occupation zone in southern Lebanon.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📷 The rockets fired from Iran at Israel yesterday had photos of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Abbas Nilforoushan on them, Fars news agency reported

They were both killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇭🇺 Hungary blocks the EU's plan to send instructors and advisers to Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops there, and demands that it be revised, Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto said.

According to him, the EU training mission on the territory of the community countries, which began in November 2022, is expiring soon. He added that the EU is currently discussing a proposal not only to extend it for two years, but also to send instructors and military advisers to Ukraine "so that they can take part in coordinating the preparatory mission and, as they say, in increasing its effectiveness."

"We consider this an extremely dangerous step in terms of military escalation. We see that this proposal would significantly increase the risk of the conflict expanding... So we say "no" to this proposal, we have told the EU External Action Service in Brussels that we cannot support the proposal in this form; we have asked them to revise it," Szijjarto said in a video message that was broadcast on Facebook*.

* Facebook banned in Russia as extremist.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️❗️❗️Sputnik correspondent Abdel Qader Al-Bai continues his roaming report from the neighbourhood near Mar Mikhael Church in the southern suburbs of Beirut, documenting the extensive damage to buildings after the area was hit by Israeli bombardment.

At least 55 people were killed and 156 were injured as a result of Israeli air strikes on Lebanese towns and villages on Tuesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army has reported.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🤯Pompeo is a Ukrainian businessman now? 

During his conversation with pranksters, Vovan and Lexus, who pretended to be an African politician, Mike Pompeo, former head of the CIA, revealed he has a merchant bank and is "sitting on the board" of a Ukrainian telecom company.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Israel sends ‘Fire’ to Lebanon: Here’s what you need to know about the IDF's 98th division

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently released footage of soldiers from the 98th 'Fire' Division gearing up for their operation from the Lebanese border

Sputnik delves into what is known about this unit.

▪️ The 98th 'HaEsh' (meaning ‘Fire’ in Hebrew) Paratroopers Division was set up in 1974 following the Yom Kippur War, with the aim of defending Israel’s borders against threats from Lebanon and Syria.

▪️ This elite reserve infantry division is part of the Israeli army and comprises several brigades, including infantry, armored, and artillery units, as well as the Paratroopers Brigade and the Commando Brigade.

▪️ The division was redeployed from the Gaza Strip, where it had been conducting operations since October 2023, to the Israel-Lebanon border

▪️ The division participated in both the First Lebanon War in 1982 and the Second Lebanon War in 2006, engaging in battles in Beirut and its southern suburbs, as well as surrounding the city of Saida.

Controversial moments in the division's history:

▪️ During the First Lebanon War, the 98th division was involved in encircling the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps right when Lebanese Kataeb units (right-wing Christian forces) began a campaign of ethnic cleansing in both camps, according to Israeli Kahane Commission, which investigated the incident. As a result of the massacre that occurred during September 16-18, 1982, approximately 800 civilians lost their lives.

According to the findings of Israel’s Kahane Commission, which investigated the incident, the commander of the 98th division, Amos Yaron, failed to take action to determine what was happening in the blockaded refugee camps.

▪️ The division's performance in the 2006 Second Lebanon War also came under criticism, as Israeli government-appointed commission led by Judge Eliyahu Winograd concluded that the 98th did not fully execute its operational tasks. The Israeli government however, didn't disclosed the commission’s report.

Meanwhile, the IDF announced that the 36th division will be also joining Israel's ground operation in southern Lebanon. The 36th division will include soldiers from the 188th Armored Brigade and 6th Infantry Brigade, along with additional forces, the Israeli army noted.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Three Israeli Merkava tanks that crossed the border with Lebanon in the Maroun al-Ras area were destroyed, according to Hezbollah fighters. Dead and wounded were reported among the tank crews.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Key statements by Russia's UN representative Vassily Nebenzia amid escalation in the Middle East:

▪️It is an illusion that Israel has military superiority, Israel is trying to pit its main rival Iran against the United States

▪️The declaration of the UN Secretary General as persona non grata in Israel shows a boorish attitude not only to the UN, but also a slap in the face to all of us

▪️Russia condemns Israel's invasion of Lebanon and calls for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from the country’s territory

▪️Russia strongly condemns the murder of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: 80 one-ton bombs were dropped on a residential area to eliminate him

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Does Israel have nuclear weapons?

Israel may target Iran's nuclear facilities following Tehran's missile strike, CNN reports, while the Guardian suggests that the escalation may prompt Iran to build a nuclear bomb. Israel's apparent possession of nuclear weapons complicates matters even further.

How many nuclear warheads is Israel believed to have?

▪️According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), as of January 2024, Israel had approximately 90 nuclear warheads. They include 30 gravity bombs for delivery by F-16 or F-15 aircraft, 50 warheads for land-based Jericho III ballistic missiles and 10 nuclear cruise missiles for Israel's Dolphin-class submarines.

When did Israel's nuclear program start?

▪️The US government first learned of Israel's secret nuclear program at the Negev Nuclear Research Center (NNRC) near Dimona in 1960, according to US government documents declassified in 2015. By 1974, Israel had already amassed a nuclear stockpile, the CIA estimated at the time.

▪️The center was reportedly built in the late 1950s with the French assistance.

▪️Israel could have had 750–1,110 kilograms of plutonium at the start of 2023, enough to build up to 277 nuclear warheads, SIPRI says.

What's behind Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity?

▪️Israel has never officially confirmed nor denied that it possesses nuclear weapons. Israel is also not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

▪️In a February 20 op-ed for the Washington Post, US security experts claimed the policy was justified during the Cold War as Israel feared the USSR could share nuclear technology with Egypt or Syria for the sake of balance.

▪️Nonetheless, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv publicly proposed using nuclear weapons in the Gaza strip in the wake of Hamas' October 7 attack.

▪️Israel’s defense minister Moshe Dayan proposed using nuclear weapons on the second day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israeli media revealed in 2013.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Russia's UN representative Vassily Nebenzia on Israel declaring UN Secretary General persona non grata:

"Today's news that the Secretary General is a persona non grata is Israel is unheard of and is a slap not just on the UN but on all of us," Vassily Nebenzia said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Israel has deliberately escalated the conflict with the assassination of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah, and Israel bears all the responsibility for the escalation, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said

Nebenzia also stated that the Israeli leadership wants to provoke a direct conflict between Iran and the United States.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬Pompeo to Poroshenko Russian pranksters: I've been disappointed with the EU

Former director of the CIA and the US State Department, Mike Pompeo, in a conversation with pranksters, Vovan and Lexus, who introduced themselves as former Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, said that he has been disappointed that the EU had not done more for Ukraine.

"[EU assistance to Ukraine] is still insufficient. It's insufficient to build a European security model with NATO as a central construct of it. The Europeans have to step up. And it's not just about money, Mr. President. It's so much more than that. It's about culture. It's about the fighting spirit. It's about an understanding of European economic power," he told the Poroshenko Russian pranksters.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt