WESTERN PERSPECTIVE US consults allies about North Korea troops in Ukraine It would be a "dangerous and highly concerning development" if North Korea was sending troops to help Russia in Ukraine, the United States said on Monday as South Korea and Britain warned of the high price Moscow would likely have to pay Pyongyang. "We are consulting with our allies and partners on the implications of such a dramatic move," deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood told the 15-member United Nations Security Council. Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Pyongyang of…

Lebanese flee as blasts hit Beirut, Israel warns of strikes on Hezbollah finance arm Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes late on Sunday with multiple explosions heard across the Lebanese capital, as Israel prepared to attack sites linked to the financial operations of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and told people to leave those areas immediately. Reuters witnesses saw dense plumes of black smoke billowing in the air after at least 10 blasts. Eyewitnesses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighbourhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut was reduced to rubble and the…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine says it struck Russian military airfield, explosives factory Ukrainian forces attacked infrastructure at a military airfield in Russia's Lipetsk region and an explosives-manufacturing enterprise in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Kyiv's General Staff said on Sunday. The confirmation came after Russian officials and Telegram channels said Ukraine had targeted those regions in an overnight drone attack. The Ukrainian General Staff added that it was still assessing the extent of damages. ** Russian forces storming town in eastern Ukraine, bloggers say Russian forces are fighting street-to-street battles with Ukrainian troops in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian town of…

Israel pounds Beirut and Gaza after rockets hit Israel's north Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah arms facilities in southern Beirut on Saturday after the Lebanese armed group fired rockets into northern Israel and a spokesman said a drone was launched at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's holiday home. Netanyahu was not there at the time, and it was not immediately clear if the building was hit. But he described it as an assassination attempt by "Iran's proxy Hezbollah" and called it a "grave mistake", as Israel prepares to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month. The strikes…