🇮🇱❌🇱🇧❗️ — British State Media BBC News reports that Israel tells US it intends to launch Lebanon ground incursion, US official says

➡️ A US official confirms Israel has notified the US it intends to launch a limited ground incursion into Lebanon, the BBC's US partner CBS is reporting.

➡️ The official says the operation could start as soon as today

🔗 Link

#BREAKING
🇱🇧🪖❗️ — Local sources in the village of Debl confirmed to us that Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are indeed withdrawing their positions across the border points in Southern Lebanon, reportedly after being warned by United States of the incoming military action by Israel!

🇦🇹🗳 Austria's right wing forces eye unprecedented election win

Austrians vote on Sunday in a general election that could see the right-wing opposition Freedom Party (FPÖ) top the polls for the first time.

But now, led by Herbert Kickl, the FPÖ is within reach of a historic victory. It narrowly leads the ruling conservatives in the opinion polls, and the opposition Social Democrats are in third place.

Even if the Freedom Party manages to come first, no party is expected to win enough seats for an outright majority, and building a coalition is likely to be difficult.

The FPÖ has successfully tapped into concerns about migration, rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and anger over the way the Covid pandemic was handled, and for months has been hovering around 27% in the polls, up to two points ahead of the conservative Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) or Austrian People's Party, which is predicting a photo finish.

Like other far-right European parties, the FPÖ combines tough rhetoric on immigration and Islam with promises to reduce what it regards as interference from Brussels in national affairs.

But Kickl has also aligned his party closely with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the self-styled champion of "illiberal democracy" and expressed a more conciliatory tone when it comes to Russia.

The Freedom Party leader has called European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen a "warmonger" and opposes sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The conservative People’s Party, led by Austria’s current chancellor Karl Nehammer, has repeatedly excluded joining a Kickl-led government, although it has not ruled out an alliance with his party.

🔗 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4xz013zx7o

🇦🇹 “Remigration! I have absolutely no problem to say that word.... We are not going to accept any asylum requests anymore."

- Herbert Kickl, head of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)

Polls put his FPÖ party in first place heading into national elections on Sept. 29.

🔗 Remix News

🇩🇪 A group of German lawmakers from across the political spectrum are considering backing a motion to potentially ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

According to the Welt newspaper and Spiegel magazine, significantly more than the 37 lawmakers required for such a motion are together weighing whether to take action against the AfD.

The lawmakers come from the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the hard-left Die Linke (The Left).

In their draft motion, the lawmakers are also reportedly calling for the AfD to be excluded from state funding.

Dpa has learned that the lawmakers plan to present the motion to parliamentary groups sometime after October 8.

In the court proceedings, opponents of the AfD would have to prove that the party is aggressively working to undermine Germany's democratic constitution.

🔗 https://www.dailyfinland.fi/europe/39721/Some-German-MPs-considering-case-to-ban-far-right-AfD

🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 Israel’s leaders believe they now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape the Middle East, one that goes well beyond pulverizing Hamas and Hezbollah.

Even before Israel launched what it described as a “limited” ground offensive into Lebanon Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that his ultimate target in the regional power shift is to undermine the authority of Tehran’s clerical leadership, defanging the Iranians who are the bankrollers, trainers and supposed protectors of both Hamas in Gaza and the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah.

In an address in English on Monday, Netanyahu promised the “noble Persian people” that the day when they were free of rule by “tyrants” and could have peace with Israel would come “a lot sooner than people think.”

“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” he warned ominously.

For Iran, that will not sound like idle posturing. Israel is not just fighting Tehran by smashing its allies and proxies — such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — but is showing its supremacy both in terms of technology and espionage on Iranian soil.

Ground offensive in Lebanon. On Tuesday Israel made it clear it won’t stop there.

Netanyahu’s once electorally fatal opinion poll numbers are rising since Nasrallah’s assassination, meaning there’s every political inducement for him to prolong the offensive and ignore repeated cease-fire calls from Western allies and aid groups, who fear a humanitarian crisis worsening in Lebanon.

“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not the final one,” Gallant told troops serving with the army’s Golani Brigade. “We will employ all the capabilities at our disposal, and if someone on the other side did not understand what those capabilities entail, we mean all capabilities.”

U.S. officials believe the Israeli incursion will be limited, targeted and not as extensive as 2006, which triggered a short but fierce war that hurt both sides. But there remain fears in Washington of an Iranian attack against Israel, prompting some U.S. forces being moved “to defer and defend as necessary.” And there are worries of Israeli overreach.

It isn’t only domestic political logic driving Netanyahu — but military rationale, too. “The military incentives for Israel are to continue,” observed Matthew Savill of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, a think tank, speaking before the incursion.

“It has destroyed Hezbollah’s senior leadership, compromised its ability to coordinate and has the initiative. In spite of the risks a ground incursion would face, the long-range threat from ballistic missiles, and the stretched nature of current IDF operations, it is possible to imagine that many would argue there will never be a better time to go into southern Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah’s military infrastructure there,” he added.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/target-iran-israel-seizes-reshapes-middle-east-hamas-hezbollah-tehran/

🇨🇴❌🇪🇨 — Colombia suspends the export of electric energy to Ecuador.

🇲🇽🤝🌹🌍 — In the inauguration photo of Mexico's newly elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and the farewell of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president, Latin American heads of state from the political left gathered to show ideological support for the new government. In the photo are the leaders of:

🇨🇺 Cuba: Miguel Díaz-Canel
🇧🇷 Brazil: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
🇨🇴 Colombia: Gustavo Petro
🇨🇱 Chile: Gabriel Boric
🇬🇹 Guatemala: Bernardo Arévalo
🇧🇿 Belize (Prime Minister): John Briceño

🤡 Before this meeting, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva noted during the Mexico-Brazil Business Forum, organized by the Brazil-Mexico Business Council (Cebramx) and the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment, and Technology (Comce), that he understands the importance of the United States for Mexico as its main trading partner.

⁉️ However, he urged Mexican business leaders not to distrust Brazilian private investment and to also look toward the southern part of the continent.

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Iranian opposition media claims that some of the Ballistic missile salvos were seen over Shahin Shahr to Israel

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Locals in Western Tehran shows us videos of ballistic missiles flying from launching sites in Iran capital towards Israel

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Visuals from Mallard Karaj, Western Tehran as missiles fly towards Israel!

🇮🇷🇮🇱🚨 Ballistic missiles launched towards Israel flies over Tabriz, Iran.

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🇮🇷❌🇮🇱 — Sky over Tehran minutes ago

🇮🇷❌🇮🇱❗️ — Footage shows dozens of Iranian Ballistic Missiles raining over Israel minutes ago