🇮🇱🇦🇿 CNN: Israel sent troops to Azerbaijan during Iran war as part of secret network across region, sources say

Israel secretly deployed elite military and intelligence units to Azerbaijan during the war with Iran as part of a network of covert sites across the Middle East to facilitate operations against Iran, four sources familiar with the matter said.

The forces operated out of several locations in southern Azerbaijan, two of the sources said, adjacent to Iran’s northern border and, at its closest point, only about 60 miles from the Iranian city of Tabriz, which Israel struck during the war.

Special commando units were also deployed to the location and carried out intelligence-gathering missions and drone operations, the other two sources said, giving Israel a valuable perch from which to see into northern Iran during the war.

The secret deployment to Azerbaijan, reported by CNN for the first time, was one of several military positions Israel maintained across the Middle East that gave its military unprecedented reach, highlighting the role Iran’s neighbors played — some with permission, some likely without — in facilitating operations against Tehran and becoming entangled in the conflict.

The locations in Azerbaijan were among numerous covert military sites and bases in multiple countries, the sources told CNN, including in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Somaliland. The forces, initially planned as potential rescue teams in the event of an emergency, expanded in scope to become military and intelligence gathering positions.

Israel has long viewed Azerbaijan as a strategic partner in its fight against Iran, and the preparations began weeks before the opening strikes of the war. In mid-January, as Iran crushed wide-scale protests with the mass killing of demonstrators, Israel prepared a covert mission along the Azerbaijan-Iran border, two of the sources familiar with the plans told CNN. The sources described it as a preliminary operation laying the groundwork for additional steps by installing listening devices and intelligence equipment in the area.

Israel was planning to execute the operation under cover of what were to be the opening strikes of the war in mid-January. But US President Donald Trump called off the strikes at the last minute, saying that Iran had agreed to stop the killing of demonstrators.

Israel proceeded on its own.

The Israeli Air Force used stealth jets and special forces as part of the operation to install the devices, as Israel’s political leadership believed negotiations between the US and Iran were doomed to fail. The intelligence-gathering site became another means by which Israel could collect information on Iranian military movements and facilities, as well as potentially providing early warning of missile launches.

One of the key operations launched from Azerbaijan, one of the sources said, was the killing on March 4 of Rahman Moghaddam, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) intelligence division and who Israel said was responsible for planning an assassination attempt against Trump in 2024. One day later, drones struck an airport in Azerbaijan’s enclave of Nakhchivan, damaging a terminal building and wounding several people. President Ilham Aliyev blamed Iran, calling it “an act of terror” that was “ugly, cowardly and shameless.” Iran denied launching the drones.

🔗 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/05/middleeast/azerbaijan-israel-iran-war-intl

🇺🇦⚔️🇷🇺 Ukrainian UAVs struck 5 ships in various Black Sea ports last night.

As a result of the attacks, 5 Azeri crewmen were killed. One ship, a grain carrier called "Zircon" had to be abandoned by the Azeri crew.

These are the first Azeri fatalities in the Russo-Ukrainian War as a result of direct combat.

🔗 Clash Report

🇺🇸🇮🇱 As of yesterday, roughly 63 U.S. Air Force tankers (KC-135Rs & KC-46As) were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport in central Israel.

The U.S. military aircraft are occupying more than half of the airport’s parking spots, disrupting commercial operations at Israel’s main civil airport.

Despite a previous news report claiming that the USAF would remove most military aircraft from the Ben Gurion airport, such a thing did not happen

🔗 EGYOSINT

🇮🇱 Revealed: Israel’s curriculum for ‘influencing public consciousness’

A leaked Defense Ministry tender lays out the army’s training program for manipulating public opinion in Israel and abroad.

Israel’s defense establishment is training soldiers and other defense officials to conduct psychological operations designed to “influence public consciousness” in Israel and abroad, an internal Defense Ministry tender published last July and obtained by the Israeli investigative outlet The Hottest Place in Hell reveals. The courses, taught in Hebrew and English by academics who are not affiliated with the military, are intended for defense personnel based both domestically and overseas, as well as unspecified “foreign partners.”

Among the offerings are courses on how to use data to discretely shape the attitudes and actions of target audiences, intelligence gathering for such operations, and influencer training. Most of the courses are geared toward “offensive” influence operations — those aimed at actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences rather than simply protecting an existing narrative. They include training in advertising and marketing content, alongside courses on cyber warfare and intelligence gathering on target audiences.

In one course, participants learn to apply “Black Hat” techniques — a term used to describe manipulation methods that circumvent tech platforms’ rules around cybercrime, cyber warfare, or other malicious activity. The army course explicitly states that this module is designed for “the distribution and promotion of illegitimate content using technological tools and solutions — a route that bypasses Facebook and Google.”

Another course teaches participants how to plan “information operations for the purpose of influencing public consciousness in the local and international arena,” including how to craft and disseminate messages tailored to a target population, assess their impact, and apply the lessons to “future operations.”

Although the syllabus does not make explicit the targets or substance of the psychological operations and influence campaigns taught in the courses, it states in several places that the training is conducted in accordance with the “considerations and expectations” of Israel’s political echelon. In other words, at the government’s directive.

The Defense Ministry sought to contract a vendor for two years, with an option to extend the agreement for up to four years in total. The first course was scheduled to begin in August 2025.

🔗 https://www.972mag.com/leaked-idf-propaganda-israel-intelligence/

🇮🇳 📉 India's Fertility Rate Drops Below Replacement Level for First Time, Reveals Government Report

India, the world's most populous country, is currently experiencing one of the sharpest declines in fertility rates in the world. From 4.5 children per woman in the 1970s, it has now fallen to 1.9, below the replacement rate of 2.1. In more than two-thirds of countries, population growth is now below 2.1. - "India's Fertility Rate Drops Below Replacement Level for First Time, Reveals Government Report"

While the national average indicates a slowdown in population growth, the report highlights stark regional contrasts. Bihar recorded the highest fertility rate in the country at 2.9, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 2.6, Madhya Pradesh at 2.4 and Rajasthan at 2.3 - the only major states still above the replacement level. In contrast, Delhi reported the country's lowest TFR at 1.2. Southern and western states continue to show significantly lower fertility rates. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal each recorded a TFR of 1.3, while Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra and Punjab stood at 1.4. Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana each reported a TFR of 1.5.

The report also underlined the persistent rural-urban divide. India's rural TFR remained higher at 2.1 compared to 1.5 in urban areas. This trend was visible across almost all major states and Union Territories, except Kerala, where urban fertility was marginally higher, and Tamil Nadu, where fertility rates remained identical in both rural and urban regions.

https://www.ndtv.com/health/indias-fertility-rate-drops-below-replacement-level-for-first-time-reveals-government-report-11565147

🐣 🇯🇵 📈 Fertility rates rose in 13 of Japan’s 47 prefectures last year, according to preliminary figures, with some credit being given to support measures by local governments.

Although Tokyo’s fertility rate remained flat in 2025, the number of births rose by 857 from the previous year to 85,064, marking the first year-on-year increase in a decade.

The year-on-year decline in the number of births was 2.2%, the smallest since the decline began in 2016. In 2024, the fertility rate fell year-on-year in 46 prefectures, while remaining flat in Fukui Prefecture. In 2025, the fertility rate increased in 13 prefectures from the previous year, while remaining flat in six prefectures.

“We have no choice but to devote ourselves to creating an environment where young people don’t feel that life is difficult,” an official said.

Prof. Junya Tsutsui of Ritsumeikan University, who specializes in family sociology, said: “While the government’s support measures for families with children may have contributed to the narrowing of the decline, we cannot be at all reassured when considering the future sustainability of social security. It is crucial to establish mechanisms — such as job creation — to help young people in regional areas settle down, so as not to accelerate their exodus to the Tokyo metropolitan area.”

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20260605-330856/

🗳 🇮🇱 📊 Pew Research: Israel Net Favorability

🇬🇭 Ghana: +13
🇳🇬 Nigeria: +6
🇮🇳 India: +4
🇰🇪 Kenya: +3
——
🇧🇷 Brazil: -19
🇺🇸 U.S: -23 (was +30 in 2013)
🇿🇦 South Africa: -31
🇦🇷 Argentina: -34
🇨🇦 Canada: -37
🇲🇽 Mexico: -37
🇰🇷 South Korea: -43
🇬🇧 U.K: -44
🇫🇷 France: -44
🇩🇪 Germany: -50
🇮🇹 Italy: -54
🇵🇱 Poland: -55
🇳🇱 Netherlands: -56
🇸🇪 Sweden: -59
🇦🇺 Australia: -60
🇪🇸 Spain: -62
🇯🇵 Japan: -70
🇮🇩 Indonesia: -73
🇵🇸 West Bank/E. Jerusalem: -81
🇲🇾 Malaysia: -84
🇵🇰 Pakistan: -92
🇹🇷 Turkey: -96

Conducted in Spring 2026
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/06/04/most-people-across-36-countries-have-negative-views-of-israel-and-little-confidence-in-netanyahu

📎 InteractivePolls

🇺🇸🇷🇺🚀 — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were instructed by NASA to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for a possible evacuation earlier today as Russian crews worked to address a worsening air leak in the Russian segment of the station, Reuters reports.

➡️ The four members of NASA’s Crew-12 mission were directed to enter their docked SpaceX Crew Dragon and put on spacesuits as a precaution.

➡️ The leak in the Zvezda module increased from roughly one pound of air loss per day to about two pounds per day on Monday, prompting heightened concern while investigations and repair efforts continue.