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🔵 Israeli Hospital Bombed
Citizen Frank
June 19, 2025
Good morning. It’s Thursday, June 19.
Iran fired a barrage of some 30 ballistic missiles early Thursday, scoring a direct hit on Israel’s main southern hospital, the Soroka Medical Center, and two other impacts in the central cities of Holon and Ramat Gan that wounded dozens of people, including six in serious condition.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said that a man, 80, and two women, both in their 70s, were among six people seriously hurt. Two people were moderately injured, and at least 42 others suffered light injuries from shock waves and shrapnel at the various impact sites. In addition, 18 people were lightly injured as they scrambled to bomb shelters when sirens went off.
The barrage was the latest from Iran as it bombards Israel with ballistic missiles. Israel began attacking Iranian nuclear and military sites last week, citing the immediate existential threat they pose.
Senior US officials are preparing for the possibility of a strike on Iran in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign that Washington is assembling the infrastructure to directly enter a conflict with Tehran.
The situation is still evolving and could change, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private talks. Some of the people pointed to potential plans for a weekend strike. Top leaders at a handful of federal agencies have also begun getting ready for an attack, one person said.
President Donald Trump has for days publicly mused about calling for such a strike on Iran, which has been engaged in a war with Israel for nearly a week.
The Israeli Air Force struck two more of Iran’s nuclear sites on June 19, including a nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium and the country’s largest uranium enrichment facility.
Just before 5 a.m. local time in Tehran, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), on its Farsi-language channel, issued a warning urging anyone within 2 kilometers of the Arak nuclear plant to evacuate immediately. Internet access in Iran has been cut for nearly 24 hours, according to NetBlocks, a global internet monitor. The regime imposed a nationwide shutdown, citing Israel’s alleged misuse of the network for military purposes.
The IDF later said that Israel’s air force had conducted strikes on Arak and another site at Natanz used to enrich nuclear material, as part of a wave of attacks on military targets in Tehran and other areas.
President Donald Trump indicated a detente in his war of words with Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, saying that the former news network star called him to apologize “because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong” about his involvement with the growing conflict between Iran and Israel.
“Tucker is a nice guy,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “He called and apologized the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that.”
He also insisted that his “supporters are for me” on the subject of Iran.
U.S. Central Command (Centcom) chief Gen. Erik Kurilla has become a key player in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.
As Centcom chief, Kurilla leads the U.S. military command in the Middle East — a region that has taken outsized importance in recent days as President Trump weighs whether to join Israel in striking Iran to deal a permanent blow to its nuclear program.
Kurilla — who oversees military missions throughout the 21-country region — would lead any operation that Trump orders targeting Iran.
During a late-night static-fire test at Starbase, Texas, a SpaceX Starship rocket slated for Flight 10 suffered a “major anomaly” and exploded on a test stand.
“On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase. A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for,” SpaceX wrote on X early Thursday morning.
The reason for a static fire test comes ahead of an upcoming launch in which the rocket’s engines are fired while the rocket remains securely held down on the launch pad — essentially a rehearsal for the real launch.
China auto industry was already on the rocks.
Recall, in late May we reported that a historic price war had broken out in China, one where the world’s largest maker of EVs, BYD, had just cut prices by 34% in a desperate attempt to capture market share and put its competitors out of business (while unleashing a deflationary global shockwave that would crush EV makers around the globe).
Just a few days later, Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motor – one of China’s largest car makers – said China’s auto industry was going through its own “Evergrande” moment as a result of the unprecedented price war (for those who missed that particular episode, Evergrande is effectively China’s Lehman, because while the largest financial asset in the US is capital markets in China it is real estate, and the 2021 collapse of Evergrande has left China’s property market shocked and still unable to recover).
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