— 🇺🇸 Poll conducted among U.S. citizens aged 18-30: 'Democracy is at the core of American values, and must be protected.'

Agree: 71%
Disagree: 23%
Not sure: 6%

Nearly 1 in 4 young Americans states that dictatorship is not necessarily bad.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 1 in 4 young Americans are now basically fine with dictatorship. The future will CERTAINLY be interesting.

— 🇺🇸 NEW: Google has announced they will change the name of the 'Gulf of Mexico' to the 'Gulf of America' on Google Maps for U.S. based users once it is officially updated in the U.S. Geographic Names System

Users in countries that officially recognize the territory as the 'Gulf of Mexico' will still see the name used by their respective governments, while users in countries that don't officially recognize any name will see both names.

@Middle_East_Spectator

🇮🇱 The IDF minister of defense announced that they are staying indefinitely (forever) in the strategic Syrian Mount Hermon.

With the Golan and Hermon, Syria is a walk in the park for them and now threatens extensively south and central Lebanon.

— 🇩🇿/🇫🇷 NEW: Algeria has reportedly summoned the French ambassador to protest the harassment of its citizens at Paris airports.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 🇮🇱/🇵🇸 NEW: The IDF announces the death of Jacob Avitan, 39, an Israeli Defense Ministry contractor, who was killed in a 'friendly fire' incident in central Gaza today

Avitan, operating an excavator to clear rubble, was mistakenly identified as a threat at an IDF post in the 'Netzarim' corridor. A soldier opened fire, killing him.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— ❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇱/🇺🇦 NEW: The U.S. military has moved approximately 90 'Patriot' interceptor missiles from storage in Israel to Poland this week for delivery to Ukraine.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— NOTE: According to Axios, these are decommissioned Israeli interceptors, as Israel no longer uses the 'Patriot' system. The U.S. is facilitating the transfer to essentially prevent Israel from being directly accused by Russia of supplying arms to Ukraine.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 🇺🇸/🇮🇱 NEW: The U.S. Senate has blocked a bill to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 🇲🇱/🇳🇪/🇧🇫 NEW: Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have officially exited the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The countries, which formed a confederation under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in 2023, gave notice of leaving ECOWAS on January 28th, 2024, though ECOWAS protocol mandates a period of one year for the withdrawal to be completed.

There will be a six month grace period under which the AES countries can rejoin ECOWAS.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— ❗️🇺🇸 NEW: A U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jet crashed at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska; the pilot ejected safely.

@Middle_East_Spectator

⚡️🇪🇬🇵🇸🇺🇸 The Americans are pressuring Egypt to appoint an Egyptian ambassador to Israel before the end of March, according to Hebrew Media Outlets.

Egypt has not had an ambassador in Israel for over 7 months, and the Israeli ambassador to Egypt had his accreditations refused, he remains in Tel Aviv.

@medmannews

— 🇮🇷 Iran showcased self-driving and self-firing RPGs in a recent exercise – I don't know how to feel about this

@Middle_East_Spectator