🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- "Senior national security officials have told the president that any operation that aims to change the Iranian leadership is not guaranteed to be a success, the officials said." - NYT.

🇺🇸🇮🇶⚡️- Initial reports from Iraq say that the Iraqi militia and the Iran-aligned group Al-Nujaba have set up a "corps system," which would allow their soldiers to attack U.S. military targets in the region if Iran is attacked, without waiting for approval from their leadership.

They claim to have over fifty designated targets in the region.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- "The U.S. is sending significant numbers of jet fighters and support aircraft to the Middle East, assembling the greatest amount of air power in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The firepower will give the U.S. the option of carrying out a sustained, weekslong air war against Iran instead of the one-and-done “Midnight Hammer” strike the U.S. carried out in June against three Iranian nuclear sites, U.S. officials said

Trump has received several briefings on his military options should he choose to strike, all of them designed to maximize damage to Iran’s regime and its regional proxies, U.S. officials said.

The options include a campaign to kill scores of Iranian political and military leaders, with the goal of overthrowing the government, as well as an air attack that would be limited to striking targets including nuclear and ballistic-missile facilities. Both would involve a potentially weekslong operation." - The Wall Street Journal citing U.S. and foreign officials.

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡- "I don't need historical shit to end this war and move to diplomacy. Because it's just a delay tactic. I read no less history books than Putin. And I learned a lot. I know more about his country than he knows about Ukraine. Simply because I have been to Russia – to many cities. And I knew a lot of people there. He has never been to Ukraine this many times. He was only in big cities. I went to small cities. From the northern part to the southern part. Everywhere. I know their mentality. That's why I don't want to lose time on all these things. It's about them. They decided to have such a system. The Russians decided to change themselves. The Russians decided that they needed a new Tsar. It's up to them.

But there is security. There is a big war waged against us. This is our lives. The only thing that I want to speak about with him is that I think that we need to resolve it in the most successful way. I mean to end this war quickly. That is why I want to speak only about such things," - Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine.

🇰🇷⚡- BREAKING: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun have been found guilty of insurrection, Yonhap reports.

🇬🇧⚡️- BREAKING: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to Jeffrey Epstein.

🇵🇱🇮🇷⚡️- Poland urges Polish citizens to leave Iran immediately.

“In a few, a dozen, or several dozen hours, evacuation may no longer be possible.” - Polish PM Tusk.

🇪🇹⚡- Tigray Defense Forces have entered and taken over the town of Alamata, southern Tigray Interim Administration, TIA, region, Ethiopia.

This marks the furthest south TDF have deployed its forces since the 2022 Pretoria Agreement.

Map by Rerum Novarum shows the approximate situation in Northern Ethiopia:

- Orange: TDF presence (it does not indicate control). TDF are TPLF factions, led by Debretsion Gebremichael and his TPLF-D unit, that support Tigray separatism. It also includes the large Masho Beyene-led TPLF-M faction.

TDF have heavy influence in the mountains of Agame and Asegede, and the towns around Gundagundi, along Eritrea's borders. TPLF-D's stronghold remains in the Angolaba area. The bulk of the TDF is located along the Tigray-Afar border region, where they have clashed with the Addis Ababa-backed ethnic Afar militias in the past. The lack of security personnel along the Tigray-Afar border provides the group with space to host military camps. It is therefore this area that will likely see the majority of fighting, if the Ethiopian military decides to launch its operation to capture all Tigray camps.

It's normally assumed that there are approximately 200,000 soldiers in the TDF, while Ethiopian media tends to inflate the numbers much higher.

- The brown border shows the Tigray Interim Administration, TIA. Note, the borders of the Tigray region and TIA are not the same, TIA controls slight areas of neighbouring regional territories (as per the 2022 Pretoria Agreement), and lays claim to additional lands.

TIA and its military affiliate Tigray Peace Forces, TPF, are loyal to the former TIA Chief Getachew Reda, who fled to Addis Ababa last year after clashes erupted between TIA (+TPF) and TPLF-D. TPF are mostly pro-Addis Ababa and have fought the TDF in the past. TPF's command structure is located in the neighbouring Afar region, secured by Addis Ababa-backed ethnic Afar militias.

- Note, it's unconfirmed whether TPLF-70, a Sudan-based and pro-Khartoum Tigray unit, is allied with the TDF. Hence, its presence in the Fasherga area is not shown on the map.
- Note, Afar, Amhara, Ogaden and Oromia separatists are not shown on the map.
- Note, it's normally assumed the entire Tigray region opposes Addis Ababa – that is not the case.

🇺🇸🇬🇧⚡- The six F-22s that were supposed to travel to RAF Lakenheath yesterday have gone airborne towards the UK.

Advisor to the Chairman of the Iranian Parliament:

"The stage is now set for a historic confrontation."

@Mena_Live

🇺🇸🇯🇴 - A US EA-18 Growler was operating over Jordan just over an hour ago.

🇺🇸⚡- USS Gerald R. Ford's (CVN-78) C-2A Greyhound is seen operating in the Atlantic Ocean, indicating the carrier has likely not yet entered the Mediterranean.

🇮🇷🇨🇳⚡- "Iran’s oil exports to China, its biggest customer, fell to its lowest level in nearly three years, last month," - Kpler.

🇺🇸⚡- The first Board of Peace meeting is underway in Washington.

🇺🇸🇬🇧🇮🇷⚡- The UK blocked the US from using RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia for strikes on Iran, citing international law, which led to Trump withdrawing support for Labour's Chagos Islands handover deal with Mauritius, The Times reports.

🇺🇸🇵🇸⚡- BREAKING: The Board of Peace has announced five countries will send troops to the Gaza Strip as part of the International Stabilization Force: Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania.

🇺🇸🇨🇺⚡- "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been holding secret talks with the grandson and caretaker of Cuba's aging de facto dictator, Raul Castro, as the U.S. puts unprecedented pressure on Havana's regime," - Axios.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- During Geneva talks, Iran rejected a sweeping U.S. arrangement and instead offered ‘modest’ concessions only on its nuclear work, the impasse is unlikely to be broken. - WSJ quoting U.S. officials.