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Iran Declares Missile Attacks on Tel Aviv Over But Israel and US Vie for Retaliation

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In an overnight escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, Iran on Wednesday declared that its missile strikes on Israel were over unless further provoked, even as Israel and the United States vowed retaliation. This development has intensified fears of a broader conflict in the region, potentially turning it into another World War.

Washington D.C. pledged to work with its ally, Israel, to ensure that Iran faces “severe consequences” for the attack, which Israel claims involved over 180 ballistic missiles. The United Nations Security Council has called an urgent meeting on Wednesday to address the situation, while the European Union has demanded an immediate ceasefire.

“We have completed our action unless the Israeli regime invites further retaliation. In that case, our response will be even stronger,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi stated on social media platform X early on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a known Hezbollah stronghold, with at least a dozen attacks on Wednesday morning. These strikes followed Iran’s largest-ever military assault on Israel, with large plumes of smoke seen rising over the city. Evacuations in the area have been ongoing amid relentless bombings.

Iran’s missile barrage represents its most extensive military strike against Israel to date. Sirens blared across Israel, with explosions reported in Jerusalem and the Jordan River Valley, forcing the population into bomb shelters. While Israel reported no injuries, authorities in the West Bank confirmed one casualty.

Iran described the missile strike as a defensive response, targeting Israeli military facilities, with Tehran claiming that three Israeli military bases were hit. Iranian state media reported that the attack was in retaliation for Israel’s recent actions in Lebanon and Gaza, including the assassination of militant leaders.

Israel’s missile defense system intercepted most of the Iranian missiles with the help of a U.S.-led defense coalition, according to Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “This attack by Iran is a serious and dangerous escalation,” he warned.

Retaliation Fears Grip Global Nations 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing an emergency cabinet meeting, vowed retaliation. “Iran has made a grave mistake tonight, and it will pay the price,” he declared.

The Iranian military has warned that any Israeli response will lead to “vast destruction” of Israeli infrastructure and threats to regional allies. The Revolutionary Guards also claimed to have used hypersonic Fattah missiles for the first time, with a reported 90% success rate in hitting Israeli targets.

In response, U.S. naval forces fired interceptors to defend against Iranian missiles targeting Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden expressed full support for Israel and dismissed Iran’s attack as “ineffective.” Vice President Kamala Harris echoed Biden’s stance, asserting that the U.S. would defend its interests and punish Iran.

The situation has drawn international concern. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the escalating violence, calling for an immediate ceasefire. French President Emmanuel Macron and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also urged restraint, warning that the ongoing cycle of attacks and retaliations risks spiraling into a larger regional conflict.

With the death toll rising in Lebanon due to weeks of cross-border fighting, the world watches anxiously as tensions between Iran, Israel, and the U.S. threaten to ignite a wider war.

Most Twitter users don’t follow political elites, but film stars: Researchers suggest

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While social media platforms are the primary source of political information for a growing number of people, a majority of Twitter users do not follow either members of Congress, their president or news media, a new study suggests.

They are much more likely to follow Tom Hanks or Katie Perry than an elected official.

“Those users who do follow political accounts on Twitter, however, stick to insular online communities and mostly follow and share information from their political in-group,” said Magdalena Wojcieszak, lead author and professor of communication at the University of California, Davis, and the University of Amsterdam.

In other words, speaking to ongoing debates about so-called “echo chambers” on social media platforms, the small group of users who do follow political elites display clear political biases and engage with these elites in a very one-sided way.

The findings come after researchers from UC Davis and New York University analyzed four years’ worth of data from a sampling of 1.5 million Twitter users.

Twitter

Researchers concluded that even though the group of social media users who display political biases in their online behaviors is small, it is nevertheless consequential. These users are much more vocal, participatory and active online, thus amplifying the general perception of unprecedented polarization.

“In this project, we focus on national political elites due to their visibility and national-level influence on public opinion and the political process,” Wojcieszak said. Yet, despite the prominence and impact of presidents, congressmen, journalists, pundits and the news media, researchers found that only 40% of Twitter users follow one or more political “elites.” The remaining 60% follow no political actors at all.

“Given that we analyzed over 2,500 American political elite accounts including Donald Trump, Joe Biden, prominent pundits including Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity, and the most popular media outlets such as MSNBC and Fox News, the fact that only 23% of the representative sample of over 1.5 million users follow three of more of such elite accounts is revealing,” Wojcieszak said.

The authors found that those users who do follow politicians, pundits and news media follow their political in-group at much higher rates than out-group elites (around 90% vs. 10%) and share tweets from in-group elites overwhelmingly more frequently than out-group tweets (at about a 13:1 ratio). And when users share out-group tweets, they tend to add negative comments to these reshares, further reinforcing ideological biases online.

The research also reveals important ideological asymmetries: conservative users are roughly twice as likely as liberals to share in-group versus out-group content, as well as to add negative commentary to out-group shares.

Social Media/Photo:indiainternationaltimes

Surprising findings

“Overall, the majority of American Twitter users are not sufficiently interested in politics to follow even a single political or media elite from our list,” Wojcieszak said. Researchers wrote that they found this surprising, since it is generally believed that Twitter users are more politically engaged than the general population.

Given a growing radicalization in America, decreasing support for democratic norms, and rising support for political violence, concerns about political biases on social media platforms are valid, no matter how small the groups displaying those biases may be.

“At the same time,” Wojcieszak said, “we have to remember that these political biases are far removed from the everyday online behaviors of most politically disinterested Americans, who simply don’t care and prefer to immerse themselves in entertainment or sports. Our findings should help us all keep in perspective the concerns about the so-called ‘echo chambers’ online.”

 

UN General Assembly Session: Biden to present plan on Security Council Expansion

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At next week’s high-level UN General Assembly (UNGA) meeting, US President Joe Biden will present a ideas for moving forward the Security Council reform process that includes expanding it, according to Washington’s Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Giving a basic outline of US plans for “moving the needle forward” on reforms, she said on Friday that “the President will present a bit more on this in his speech”.

“We will advance efforts to reform the UN Security Council that includes forging consensus around sensible and credible proposals to expand Security Council membership,” Thomas-Greenfield, who is a member of Biden’s cabinet, said while briefing reporters about the country’s priorities for the Assembly session, which will draw leaders from several countries.

“We will be having discussions with our P3 colleagues as well as others on the way forward,” she said using the acronym “P3” for the three Western permanent members, the US, Britain and France.

President Joe Biden.(photo:Instagram)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken “will also be engaging this week on the commitments we’ve made and how we see the process moving forward”, she said.

“And we will have further discussions with other member states on how we can just move the needle on this so that we can make some progress on UN reform and Security Council reform.”

Thomas-Greenfield confirmed that Biden would address the Assembly on September 21, a break with the tradition of the US President as the second speaker after Brazil at the opening of the annual high-level session known as the General Debate that starts on September 20.

This is because Biden is scheduled to be in London on Monday for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is staying away from the UN meeting this year, as are Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, who all met this week in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, at the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron will be in New York at the UN meeting and UK Prime Minister Liz Truss will make her debut there on the world stage following her election last week.

While the US, along with Britain and France, supports India getting a permanent seat on the Council, Washington’s agenda for reforms is broader.

Thomas-Greenfield laid out what she said were six new principles for the Council, one of which is expanding its membership.

Another relates to Russia blocking the Council from acting on its invasion of Ukraine and its fallout by using its veto power.

“Bilateral disputes must never be an excuse for obstructing the Council’s mandate or forgoing one’s responsibilities,” she said.

She proposed drastically cutting down the use of vetoes, tagging on the assurance that “we will refrain from the use of the veto except in rare, extraordinary circumstances”.

She pointed out that since 2009, Russia has cast 26 vetoes, in 12 of which China joined it, while the US had only used it only four times during that period.A

Another principle Thomas-Greenfield proposed was bringing transparency to the Council while enhancing cooperation.

“Council members should engage frequently and substantively with the General Assembly and other UN bodies and UN member states”, she said.

“These principles are the start of a dialogue, one that President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and myself and so many others will pick up and take into our conversations during High-Level Week and in the weeks ahead.

“Our hope is to rally the world behind the Charter that we all committed to 77 years ago in San Francisco, and together, we will work to shape and reform it and the system it has created for the future,” she said.

Her adding the key qualifiers “sensible and credible” to the Council expansion proposal opens it to several suggestions.

The ideas for reform that have been proposed by several countries and groups include adding permanent members with veto power or without it (which India is amenable to); instead only giving extended terms beyond the current two years to some elected members, and expanding only non-permanent membership under present terms.

The other issue is which countries get the permanent memberships.

It is a touchy matter for the US which is uneasy about certain countries from the African or Arab block getting permanent seats just as China and Russia are leery about the possible elevation of some countries.

Michelle Obama lashes out at Trump, overshadows Joe Biden, Kamala at 2020 Convention

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Wearing a viral DNC ‘V-O-T-E’ necklace, Michelle Obama brought to the Democratic National convention Monday an entirely new twist to lash out at President Donald Trump with her fiery speech that obliterated the candidates.

Urging Americans to vote for Joe Biden, she said, he “is not perfect,” but “there is no perfect candidate, no perfect president… His ability to learn and grow — we find in that the kind of humility and maturity that so many of us yearn for right now.”

Reiterating the popular contention that things cannot go worse than what they are, she reminded the US voters that “if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can — and they will if we don’t make a change in this election.”

Overshadowed Joe Biden, Kamala Harris

The former First Lady said in a pre-recorded two-hour video address, “If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.” She said the country had been “living with the consequences” of the 2016 election and reminded that apathy to vote for right candidate results in disaster.

The widely popular message caught up with Republicans who described it as overshadowing the main candidates — Joe Biden and Kamala Harris — in the 2020 Democratic National Convention. In fact, the message has obliterated all the negative views which may have gone in among the democrats since the selection of Kamala Harris and not other candidates in waiting.


“Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy,” Michelle Obama said, defending the choice of candidates for Presidential race this time.

Divided Nation

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic started “people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe has made the children of this country torn apart by “torch-bearing white supremacists,” she reminded them. “Sadly, this is the America that is on display for the next generation,” she said. “That’s not just disappointing; it’s downright infuriating.”

“He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is,” she said sending out a unity call stating that “we live in a nation that is deeply divided,” she reminded.”

Reiterating her infamous 2016 slogan, she said, “when they go low, we go high” and redefined going high means harder path and standing fierce against hatred, unlocking the shackles of lies and mistrust. Finally, she declared that “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country.”

 

Kamala Harris fires her campaign team amid fund crunch, Tulsi emerges stronger

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Kamala Harris the Democratic nominee for president has fired many of her campaign staff amid reports of ranking lower than two other contestants, indicating a desperate bid to cut down cost and still remain in the fray for the US Presidential elections.

However, she is not the only candidate facing a cash crunch with more staffers but but these layoffs are not a good sign for someone polling among the top five, said experts. She has raised $11.8 million last quarter but ended up spending $14.5 million.

The USA Today/Suffolk poll predicted Harris at 3 percent with assured vote by Democrats in their primaries. Another Indian American Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D–Hawaii), who called out Harris’s criminal justice record, now surpassed her standing at 4 percent.

It means, if Gabbard wins one more poll, she may be among the speakers vying for nomination at the November’s Democratic debate. Moreover, Gabbard is halfway through the polling threshold for December, which Harris hasn’t qualified for still.

Joe Biden is on top among the Democratic nominees at 26 percent, followed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (17 percent), Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (13 percent), and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (10 percent).

Harris had remained a top contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination since her July 2018 when she announced that she would publish a memoir, another sign of a possible run. In January, she officially announced her candidacy for President of the United States in the 2020 United States presidential election.

Within 24 hours, she matched the record set by Bernie Sanders in 2016 for the most donations raised in the day following announcement. More than 20,000 people attended her formal campaign launch event in her hometown of Oakland, California and her support rose by between 6–9 points in polls following the first Democratic presidential debate.

However, in the second debate, Harris was confronted by Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard over her record as Attorney General, notably her past positions on marijuana, cash bail, and parole reform. The current cash crunch may further fuel to her woes in the electioneering.