⚡️🇱🇧🇮🇱 Israeli forces set a nature reserve in Baraachit, southern Lebanon, ablaze. This occurred after a number of Israeli soldiers were spotted advancing onto a nearby hill.

@wfwitness

⚡️🇺🇸🇮🇷 During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Senator Dick Durbin asked War Secretary Pete Hegseth for an updated estimate of the cost of the war with Iran.

Hegseth replied:

“Senator, the estimate we have as of today is $37.5 billion.”

@wfwitness

🇷🇺🔥
Wildberries warehouse is somehow getting toastier than the oil depot.

🇷🇺🚒
Mi-8 is trying to put out the fire.

According to the FT, the US has collected c. $13bn, and nobody knows where it is.

The White house has given differing accounts of where the money has gone, but as there is 🙂‍↔️ congressional oversight there is no certainty of where it has gone.

There are reports that $3bn have been repatriated to Venezuela but economic markers in Venezuela indicate that there has been no increased growth from the dropping of sanctions - reflecting no increase in oil exports.

Given earthquake damage amounting to $37bn, the theft of funds by a secretive white house account (not even the US state), the risk of misappropriation is gigantic.

This also doesn't include mining revenues, which have, at least in part, also been commandeered by the US.

🇺🇸🇺🇦 The US Senate has added H.R. 2913, the Ukraine Support Act, to its legislative calendar after its second reading.

Its placement on the legislative calendar makes the bill eligible for consideration by the full Senate.

What is in H.R. 2913 — the Ukraine Support Act?

Military assistance

▪️ Extend Ukraine Defense Lend-Lease authority through fiscal year 2028

▪️ Authorize up to $8 billion in Foreign Military Financing loans for Ukraine and NATO allies

▪️ Authorize $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative in 2026 and another $300 million in 2027

▪️ Require regular reports on Ukraine’s military requirements, allied weapons deliveries and the consequences of suspending US intelligence support

The $8 billion is loan authority, not an automatic $8 billion grant to Ukraine.

Support for the Baltic states

▪️ Provide Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with $30 million each annually in military-financing grants from 2026 through 2028

▪️ Provide each Baltic state with another $4 million annually for border security, demining and related programs

Reconstruction and economic support

▪️ Provide war-risk insurance for ships carrying cargo to and from Ukraine

▪️ Establish a State Department insurance initiative to encourage private investment in Ukraine

▪️ Create a permanent Special Coordinator for Ukrainian Reconstruction

▪️ Establish a Ukraine Reconstruction Trust Fund for rebuilding, humanitarian assistance and economic development

▪️ Finance the fund partly through a proposed 100% tax on interest and dividends generated by frozen Russian and Belarusian sovereign assets

Political commitments

▪️ Support Ukraine’s sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders, including Crimea and the occupied parts of Donbas

▪️ Require Ukraine’s participation in negotiations concerning its future

▪️ Reaffirm NATO’s open-door policy

▪️ Condemn Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children

Sanctions against Russia

The US president would regularly determine whether Russia is:

▪️ Continuing its war against Ukraine

▪️ Refusing to negotiate sincerely

▪️ Violating a future peace agreement

An affirmative finding would trigger mandatory measures targeting:

▪️ Major Russian banks, including Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank and Alfa Bank

▪️ The Russian Central Bank

▪️ Russian oil, gas, coal, mining and mineral-processing companies

▪️ Rosatom and entities conducting significant transactions with it

▪️ Senior Russian officials and military commanders

▪️ Ships violating the Russian oil-price cap

▪️ Financial-messaging services working with sanctioned Russian banks

▪️ Companies involved in constructing a bridge or tunnel between Russia and occupied Crimea

▪️ Entities supporting military cooperation between Russia and North Korea

▪️ Individuals involved in the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children

Trade and financial restrictions

▪️ Impose a minimum 500% tariff on Russian goods and services imported into the United States

▪️ Restrict petroleum products refined in third countries from Russian crude oil

▪️ Restrict transactions involving newly issued Russian sovereign debt

▪️ Expand controls on foreign-made dual-use goods produced using US technology

▪️ Exempt humanitarian trade

Information and energy security

▪️ Provide $250 million for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

▪️ Fund programs countering Russian disinformation

▪️ Provide funding for US-European nuclear-energy cooperation aimed at reducing dependence on Russia and Rosatom

For ADHD people:

🇺🇸🇺🇦 The US Senate has placed H.R. 2913, the Ukraine Support Act, on its legislative calendar, making it eligible for consideration by the full Senate.

The bill would extend Ukraine Defense Lend-Lease through 2028, authorize up to $8 billion in military-financing loans, and provide $300 million annually in 2026 and 2027 for military assistance.

It would also support Ukraine’s reconstruction and impose sweeping new sanctions and trade restrictions on Russia, including a proposed 500% tariff on Russian imports.

🇷🇺Russians love this shi and are surely enjoying the bombings

Russians deliberately launched a campaign of terror against Ukrainian civilian sites, knowing full well that they themselves have dozens of times more of them. All these hubs and centers are doomed. They’ll keep tolerating it down to the last dual purpose marketplace, and the old bunker bastard will outlive them all.