Massive preparations underway for PM's visit to Visakhapatnam for Yogandhra event
2:07
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has stated that Iran is not prepared for talks with any party while Israeli attacks continue. He emphasised that there is no point in negotiating until the attacks stop.
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Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
From Jerusalem, Haifa to Tel Aviv, Iran unleashes missiles on Israeli cities
Projectiles appeared to be intercepted by Israeli air defence systems on Friday (June 20) over the skies of Haifa. Air-raid sirens sounded across Israeli cities and Jerusalem on Friday (June 20) while interceptions were seen in the sky after another apparent barrage of missiles launched from Iran. Israeli media said initial reports pointed to Iranian missile impacts in Tel Aviv, the Negev and Haifa. Israel said it had struck dozens of military targets overnight, including missile production sites, a research body involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran. Iran launched a new barrage of missiles at Israel early on Friday, striking near residential apartments, office buildings and industrial facilities in the southern city of Beersheba. After air raid warnings later on Friday, Israeli media said initial reports pointed to missile impacts in Tel Aviv, the Negev and Haifa. Show more Show less
Hindustan Times
20 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Israel hasn't threatened any country with annihilation unlike Iran, says Ambassador Reuven Azar
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He also expressed gratitude to the US for its support but emphasized that Israel is committed to defending itself independently. He stressed that Israel's actions are rooted in self-defence. "We are a democracy, and we go to war, unfortunately, only when we are threatened, and in this case, we are threatened with our own existence. We had no choice, and this is a consensus in Israel. It comes from all the parties that we have to take action because we want to survive," he added. Azar asserted that Tel Aviv has definitive evidence that Iran's nuclear program posed a grave and immediate threat to Israel's security. "We acted at almost the last moment we had in order to foil and remove Iran's plan for the extermination of our state," he said. He claimed that Iran has been working for over three decades to build a strategy that could potentially destroy Israel. While many find this hard to believe, he said, the evidence is clear. "First and the most dangerous track is the nuclear track because this regime that has sworn to destroy Israel, has stated that, multiple times, was actually acquiring the means to have weapons of mass destruction. So, they have deceived the international community and the IAEA for many years and only last week, ten days ago, the IAEA issued a report saying that Iran is in a situation of non- compliance of the safeguard agreement of the NPT," he said. According to Azar, Iran's high-level uranium enrichment was unjustified by any peaceful, civilian nuclear programme and pointed directly to the weaponization of their nuclear materials. "We couldn't allow a country that has sworn to destroy us to acquire these capabilities," Azar said, adding. "That is why we took action against their nuclear programme." In addition to its nuclear pursuits, Azar said Iran's "ballistic missile programme is the second major threat". Over the years, Iran has developed an arsenal of thousands of ballistic missiles, capable of launching an unprecedented number of warheads, he claimed. Azar said that the Iranian missile program could potentially lead to the production of 20,000 ballistic missiles within six years, each carrying the destructive power equivalent to a nuclear bomb, he further claimed. The White House on Thursday said Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in "a couple of weeks" once given the go-ahead from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However on March 25, US President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran was not moving towards building nuclear weapons. Azar said Israel is "grateful to the US because it has given us the assistance that we need, first of all, to defend ourselves by ourselves". He, however, said his country's principle has been - "Israel defends itself, and we do not expect others to fight our wars." 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Time of India
23 minutes ago
- Time of India
Once prosperous, Hungary is now the poorest nation in EU — meanwhile, this tiny nation tops the wealth rankings
Once seen as one of Europe's rising stars, Hungary has officially become the poorest country in the European Union in terms of household welfare , Kyiv Insider reported, citing the latest Eurostat data. The numbers show that Hungarian households now consume just 72% of the EU average, which is the lowest among all 27 member states, according to the report. Hungary's Fall to the Bottom of EU Living Standards Hungary's figure is in contrast to Luxembourg, as it now leads the European Union in the Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita with 141%, followed by the Netherlands at 120% and Germany at 118%, reported Kyiv Insider. Even Poland has outpaced Hungary in real living standards by about 13 percentage points, and its AIC is at 85% of the EU average, according to the report. ALSO READ: Pro-Israel hackers nab $90 million from Iranian crypto exchange - then burn it all in symbolic blockchain move Luxembourg Leads, Hungary Lags Behind While Hungary's GDP is currently at about 77% of the EU average, which is above several low-income EU nations, its households continue to remain poorer in terms of consumption, as per a Kyiv Insider report. This gap reflects that Hungary's economic output is not transforming into real benefits for Hungarian families, according to the report. Economic Output Isn't Reaching Families The poor economic conditions come under the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán , who is an increasingly authoritarian and pro‑Russian Fidesz regime, which has been systematically pillaged, according to Kyiv Insider report. Live Events Under Orbán's leadership, "the state-owned industries have been hollowed out, public subsidies redirected to political allies, and EU funds commandeered by power networks close to the government," as reported by Kyiv Insider. Along with this, ordinary Hungarians are facing other issues like low real wages, high inflation, brain drain, and a hollowed middle class, according to the report. FAQs What does it mean that Hungary ranks last in AIC? It means Hungarian families have the least access to goods, services, and public resources like healthcare compared to others in the EU. How is this different from GDP? GDP shows how much a country produces, but AIC shows how much people actually benefit. Hungary produces more than some countries, but its people are getting less.
