Tense Israel in waiting as attack threat looms Israel's ambulance service has stocked blood supplies in a fortified underground centre, factories have moved out hazardous materials and municipal authorities are checking bomb shelters and water supplies as the country waits for a threatened attack from Iran and its proxies. Israel has been fortifying its home front for months and many preparations have been in place since the start of the war in Gaza last October, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Israeli communities. But the urgency has risen sharply over the past 10 days…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Putin accuses Ukraine of a ‘large-scale provocation’ with its raid in southwestern Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday described a Ukrainian incursion into the country’s southwestern Kursk region as a “large-scale provocation” as his officials asserted that they were fighting off cross-border raids for a second day. Ukrainian officials remained silent about the scope of the operation. Putin met with his top defense and security officials to discuss what he called the “indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons.” He instructed the Cabinet to coordinate assistance to the Kursk region. The…