Aboard an aging Boeing 707, thousands of feet above the Red Sea, I don a set of high-tech 3D goggles and stare at the small TV monitor recessed in a bank of retro dials and switches.

Saudi Arabia’s amber desert slides by to my right, Egypt’s coast to my left, then a monstrous F35 fighter jet fills the tiny screen.

I am with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – the first foreign journalist to be taken on a combat mission more than a thousand miles from Israel aboard a fighter jet refuel tanker. 

Israel has been engaged in an escalating war since Hamas’ October 7 attack last year – not just in Gaza, but in Lebanon with Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel October 8; in Yemen with the Houthis, who have launched long-range attacks at Israel’s main population centers; even in the Syrian and Iranian capitals.

Israel’s response to those attacks have killed nearly 42,000 in Gaza and more than 1,000 in Lebanon. Deadly bombing campaigns in Yemen have destroyed critical infrastructure in a war-torn country that has for years been one of the worst humanitarian cases in the world.

Israel’s invitation to join this mission came with no detail about the plane’s destination. As I climb the plane’s rickety steps, I have no idea where I am going or what this IDF flight will reveal about military operations.

Israeli Air Force security regulations are so tight neither I nor Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the IDF spokesman accompanying me, are allowed to bring our cellphones aboard.  Neither am I allowed to bring a camera or photojournalist.

Except for the cockpit, I have access to the more than 50-year-old former commercial airliner, and its commanders, under the condition that they not be named.

Even without a camera, this access is the only up-close opportunity to scrutinize and speak with those on the front lines of Israel’s several-front war.

In its new guise as an Israeli tanker, signs remain of the aircraft’s past life, a reminder of its age. The overhead call buttons depict a woman – sexism long since banished from our skies.

In all other ways, the aircraft is unrecognizable from its heyday carrying fare-paying passengers. The seats are stripped out, its long body fitted with huge, pressurized fuel tanks, essential for Israel to project its firepower.

Flying 1,200 miles (1,500 kilometers), the refueling mission I discover I am joining is the IDF’s longest-range combat mission since a 1985 raid on Tunis.

Shoshani reminds me of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s words to the United Nations General Assembly the day before. “There is no place … that the long arm of Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu said, referring to Iran and the wider Middle East.

For more than an hour and half, Israeli F35 fighter jets, each worth more than $100 million, close in behind the 707 tanker, nudging toward its trailing fuel pipe.

The squadron commander, a 15-year refueling veteran, stares through his 3D goggles, merging two camera images. He jockeys the two long levers beside his seat and steers the nozzle toward the gas-hungry fighter jet’s fuel port.

No part of this is easy, he tells me. The biggest challenge, he says, is making sure they load enough fuel, and timing the mission to the minute, so the F35s arrive on target with a full tank at precisely the moment their intelligence tells them it’s the best time to attack.

When he shows me a map of the mission, I realize we are on the way to Hodeidah Port in Yemen, controlled by Houthi rebels, backed by Iran.

Shoshani tells me the reason for this mission, is that over the past two weeks the Houthis have fired three long-range missiles, all intercepted near Tel Aviv.

Starting with attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the Houthis say they are acting out of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Their flag bears the phrases: “Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews.” But experts say the popular fight in the name of Gaza’s Palestinians has also helped the group build support in Yemen and gain international acclaim.

The Houthis claim that their most recent attack, launched late Saturday, targeted Netanyahu as he arrived back from New York at Ben Gurion International Airport just outside Tel Aviv.

An impact in this area could have caused huge civilian casualties and is the reason why, 16 hours later, this mission was deployed.

As the last of the F35s decouple from the fuel feed, the squadron commander visibly eases in his seat, pushes back his goggles, and stretches his shoulders. Each jet is on the nozzle for about 3 minutes, requiring intense focus.

We begin circling, waiting for fighter pilots to deliver their payloads. Any attack from the ground could cost them vital fuel as they try to evade being shot down and require a refill to get back to base.

Twenty minutes later we’re headed north, no top-ups needed.

I ask the lead pilot on the tanker, a reservist veteran aviator, about the challenges of such a mission and his feelings when civilians are killed. We don’t want to kill civilians, he tells me, and we use all the intelligence we have to avoid it.

I point to the high death tolls in Gaza and Lebanon from Air Force strikes. We are targeting the Houthis, he tells me, they are firing missiles at our civilians, endangering them.

By the time we land, safely back in southern Israel, news of the strike is out. The Houthi TV channel is showing images of huge plumes of fire and smoke from Hodeidah Port.

The IDF says they targeted “power plants and a seaport in the areas of Ras Issa and Hodeidah,” adding the Houthis use the port to “transfer Iranian weapons to the region, and supplies for military needs, and thus also oil.”

According to Houthi officials, the F35s I saw being refueled struck a power station and fuel store in Hodeidah, killing a port official and three engineers.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi released a statement after the strike: “We know how to reach very far, we know how to reach even farther, and we know how to strike there with precision.”

“This is not a message; it is an action. An action that carries a message with it,” Halevi said.

On the flight, Shoshani told me the message was for Iran too, a warning that while Israel is bracing for retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in Lebanon, they want the group’s sponsor, Iran, to stay out of the fight.

This embed wasn’t just an object lesson in the lengths Israel will go to to punish its enemies, but real-time evidence that dormant adversaries are emerging from the shadows, and Israel’s war to thwart them is becoming regional.

The bombs, known colloquially as “bunker busters” for their ability to penetrate deep underground before they detonate, were also fitted with the US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) – a precision guidance kit that converts unguided, or “dumb” bombs, into “smart” munitions that can precisely strike a target – according to Ball. On one plane fitted with bombs, pictured taking off in the video, Ball identified at least four as BLU-109s with JDAM kits.

Other types of large bombs may have been used in the operation, Ball added, but only the BLU-190s were visible in the footage. The munitions contain 535 pounds of explosives, significantly less than MK84s, another type of 2,000-pound bomb frequently used by the Israeli military. “BLU-109s give up explosive weight to be able to penetrate targets better than a MK84,” Ball said.

“[It] fits with the strike profile and the penetrating fuze settings and large warhead required to produce that sort of crater,” Bronk said. He added that the combination of BLU-109 bomb and JDAM kit were “what you’d expect for going after a buried, hardened target like that.”

Addressing reporters Saturday, Brig. Gen. Amichai Levin, commander of Israel’s Hatzerim Airbase, said that “dozens of munitions hit the target within seconds with very high precision,” adding that was what was “required to hit this deep underground.”

The Israeli military has repeatedly used 2,000-pound bombs during its deadly campaign in Gaza. Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of such heavy munitions for the huge death toll.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures from the health ministry there. Israel launched its ground offensive and aerial bombardment of the strip in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.

The use of 2,000-pound bombs, which are mostly manufactured by the US, can cause high casualty events in part due to the enormous scale of their impact. The weapon’s blast, or lethal fragmentation radius – an area of exposure to injury or death around the target – is up to 365 meters (about 1,198 feet), or the equivalent of 58 soccer fields.

In May, the Biden administration said it had paused a shipment of the bombs to Israel over concerns of their potential use in the Rafah incursion and their risk to civilian harm.

Israel’s strikes in Lebanon continued at pace over the weekend, killing more than 100 people and wounding more than 350 others in the country on Sunday. The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah, including in attacks by fighter jets on about 45 targets near a village in southern Lebanon.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial on Monday, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds, in a case that has the potential to derail her political ambitions.

Arriving at the court in Paris, Le Pen said, “we have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament” and vowed to present “extremely serious and extremely solid arguments″ in the trial.”

The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she is a strong contender in the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron when the next presidential election takes place in 2027.

It comes as a new government dominated by centrists and conservatives just came into office in the wake of June-July legislative elections. Some observers expect the trial could prevent National Rally lawmakers, including Le Pen herself, from fully playing their opposition role in Parliament as they would be busy focusing on the party’s defense.

Since stepping down as party leader three years ago, Le Pen has sought to position herself as a mainstream candidate capable of appealing to a broader electorate. Her efforts have paid off, with the party making significant gains in recent elections at both the European and national levels. But a guilty verdict could seriously undermine her bid to take the Elysee.

The National Rally and 27 of its top officials are accused of having used money destined for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead did political work for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called National Front at the time.

Le Pen, whose party has softened its anti-EU stance in recent years, denies wrongdoing and claims the case is politically driven.

“Parliamentary assistants do not work for the Parliament. They are political assistants to elected officials, political by definition,” she argued in her defense. “You ask me if I can define the tasks I assigned to my assistants; it depends on each person’s skills. Some wrote speeches for me, and some handled logistics and coordination.”

If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) each. Additional penalties, such as the loss of civil rights or ineligibility to run for office, could also be imposed, a scenario that could hamper, or even destroy, Le Pen’s goal to mount another presidential bid after Macron’s term ends. Le Pen was runner-up to Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.

She served as party president from 2011 to 2021 and now heads the group of RN lawmakers at the French National Assembly.

Despite her denial, her party has already paid back 1 million to the European Parliament, the Parliament’s lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said. Of that amount, 330,000 euros were directly linked to Marine Le Pen’s alleged misuse of funds.

A longstanding controversy

The legal proceedings stem from a 2015 alert raised by Martin Schulz, then-president of the European Parliament, to French authorities about possible fraudulent use of European funds by members of the National Front.

Schulz also referred the case to the European Anti-Fraud Office, which launched a separate probe into the matter.

The European Parliament’s suspicions were further heightened when a 2015 organizational chart showed that 16 European lawmakers and 20 parliamentary assistants held official positions within the party – roles unrelated to their supposed duties as EU parliamentary staff.

A subsequent investigation found that some assistants were contractually linked to different MEPs than the ones they were actually working for, suggesting a scheme to divert European funds to pay party employees in France.

Alexandre Varault, a spokesperson for the National Rally who was elected to the European Parliament in June, told The Associated Press that Le Pen will attend the first day of the trial, adding that he hopes for the acquittal of all the defendants.

Misuse of public funds alleged

Investigating judges concluded that Le Pen, as party leader, orchestrated the allocation of parliamentary assistance budgets and instructed MEPs to hire individuals holding party positions. These individuals were presented as EU parliamentary assistants, but in reality, were allegedly working for the National Rally in various capacities.

The European Parliament’s legal team is seeking 2.7 million euros in compensation for financial and reputational damages. This figure corresponds to the 3.7 million euros allegedly defrauded through the scheme, minus the 1 million euros already paid back.

During the 2014 European elections, the National Front won a record 24 MEP seats, finishing first with 24.8% of the vote, ahead of the center-right and the Socialists. This surge resulted in a substantial financial windfall for the party, which faced severe financial problems at the time.

An audit of the party’s accounts between 2013 and 2016 revealed that it was running a deficit of 9.1 million euros by the end of 2016. Yet, the party still had a cash balance of 1.7 million euros and had lent 1 million euros to Le Pen’s 2017 presidential campaign, while also holding 87,000 euros in loans to Cotelec, its funding association.

At the time, the party was also indebted to a Russian bank for 9.4 million euros, a loan taken out in 2014 for 6 million euros.

Suspected systemic practice

The investigation uncovered many irregularities involving prominent party members.

Thierry Légier, the long-time bodyguard of Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie, was listed as his parliamentary assistant. But his resume did not reference this role, and he made no mention of it in his 2012 autobiography. Légier admitted during the investigation that he was not interviewed and signed his employment contract without fully understanding his official role.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the National Front from 1972 to 2011, will not appear in court alongside his former colleagues due to health concerns. Now 96, he was deemed unfit to testify by a court in June. He has 11 prior convictions, including for violence against a public official and hate speech.

He has denied wrongdoing during his time as party leader, stating that the “pool” of assistants was common knowledge. “I did not choose which assistants were assigned to me. That was decided by Marine Le Pen and others. I only signed the contracts,” he said.

The Russian government wants to earmark 32.5% of its spending for defense in 2025, a record amount and up from a reported 28.3% this year, as Moscow seeks to prevail in the war in Ukraine.

The government’s draft budget released Monday proposes spending just under 13.5 trillion rubles (over $145 billion) on national defense. That is about three trillion rubles ($32 billion) more than was set aside for defense in 2024, which was the previous record.

The Ukraine war is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has drained the resources of both sides, with Ukraine getting billions of dollars in help from its Western allies.

Russia’s forces are bigger and better-equipped than Ukraine’s. In recent months the Russian army has gradually been pushing Ukrainian troops backward in eastern areas.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States last week in pursuit of continuing financial and military support as the war approaches its three-year milestone next February.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is also looking at how to sustain his war effort as military spending has placed a huge strain on the Russian economy.

Earlier this month, Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate by a full percentage point to 19% to combat high inflation. It held out the prospect of more rate increases to return inflation from the current 9.1% to the bank’s target of 4% in 2025.

According to the draft budget, spending on defense should decline in 2026.

The proposed budget could still change as it goes through three readings in the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament house, and then goes to the Federation Council, the upper house, before the Russian president signs it into law.

Meanwhile, on Monday Putin signed a call-up order for 133,000 conscripts in the autumn military draft, which is a routine number for seasonal conscription campaigns.

In September, he ordered the military to increase the number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million. Overall military personnel would be about 2.4 million.

Overnight, Russia fired missiles and drones at 11 regions in Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, in a 33rd consecutive night of aerial attacks behind the front line and setting a new monthly record in drone barrages.

It was the first time Russians launched more than 1,000 Shahed drones in a month. It was also the first time the Iranian-made drones were used in every aerial attack on each day of the month.

Drone attacks

In Kyiv, multiple explosions and machine gun fire could be heard throughout the night as the Ukrainian capital’s air defenses fought off a drone attack for five hours.

No casualties were reported in Kyiv or elsewhere, though a “critical infrastructure object” caught fire in the southern Mykolaiv region, Gov. Vitalii Kim said, without elaborating.

Russia has increasingly deployed Shahed drones, rather than more expensive missiles, in its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities since its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

It launched more than 1,300 Shahed drones at Ukraine in September alone, the highest number of drone attacks in a single month since the war began.

Ukraine, too, has developed a new generation of drones for the battlefield and for long-range strikes deep inside Russia. More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sunday, Russian officials said.

Also Monday, Putin released a video marking the second anniversary of the annexation of four Ukrainian territories and again accused the West of turning Ukraine into “a military base aimed at Russia.”

Putin was speaking to mark the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine after a referendum held in 2022, which was denounced by the West as a sham. Russia also illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

Since 2022, Putin said, businesses in the occupied areas are being “actively restored” and hospitals and schools are being rebuilt.

Thousands of Ukrainians have fled from the four regions as a result of Russia’s invasion, but Putin said Russia’s military operation in the country was to defend residents’ “well-being” and the “future for our children and grandchildren.”

Fans eagerly awaiting the return of Coldplay to India were shocked to find tickets being resold online for as much as $11,000, prompting police to seek a statement from the CEO of the shows’ vendor over allegations of fraud.

The British rock band is playing three shows in Mumbai in January as part of its hugely popular Music Of The Spheres tour, its first concerts in the country since 2016.

Tickets were scheduled to go on sale by the official vendor, BookMyShow (BMS), at 12 p.m. local time on September 22. But for many users, the website and app crashed amid the demand.

When fans were able to get into the virtual queue to buy tickets priced from 2,500 to 35,000 rupees ($30 to $417), they said they were behind hundreds of thousands of users.

Within minutes, the tickets were sold out and reappeared on other platforms for as much as 960,000 rupees ($11,458), sparking anger over the purchase process and the suspected use of bots to scoop up seats. To put that into perspective, the World Bank says India’s current GDP per capita is $2,500 a year.

Amit Vyas, a lawyer and founding partner of Mumbai law firm Vertices Partners, was among fans waiting for tickets on the vendor’s website when he was suddenly locked out.

He filed a complaint with police, alleging the online ticketing platform made tickets available to scalpers and third-party websites for resale on the black market.

On Monday, the founder and CEO of BookMyShow, Ashish Hemjarani, was summoned by Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing for questioning over the alleged black marketing of tickets for the concerts, a Mumbai police official said.

“Scalping is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India. We have filed a complaint with the police authorities and will provide complete support to them in the investigation of this matter,” the vendor said.

Arkatapa Basu, a 26-year-old journalist based in the southern city of Bengaluru, said she was waiting behind 130,000 people to buy tickets when she learned a third show had been added.

When she went to join the third show’s waitlist, she found there were 700,000 people waiting ahead of her. “That’s when I decided to give up,” she said.

Ishaan Jhamb, a 22-year-old engineering student from Delhi, said the tickets being resold were so expensive, he and his friends decided to fly nearly four hours to go see the band in Abu Dhabi instead, because it would be more economical.

The ticket-buying process for big concert events has often drawn angst from buyers globally.

Last month, the British rock band Oasis announced a reunion tour, sparking a frenzy of criticism over Ticketmaster’s so-called dynamic pricing, where businesses adjust prices based on factors such as demand.

Ticketmaster also faced public scrutiny in November 2022 for its handling of the massively popular Taylor Swift Eras Tour, for which the company says there was “historically unprecedented demand.”

Israel has launched what it called “a limited ground operation” across its northern border into Lebanon targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, opening a new and dangerous phase in almost a year of war.

The incursion, which Israel’s National Security Cabinet has called the “next phase” of its war with Hezbollah, marks the fourth time that Israeli soldiers have publicly entered Lebanese soil in nearly 50 years, and the first since Israel’s 34-day war in the country in 2006.

Israeli troops laid the groundwork for the incursion in recent days, ramping up airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people, destroyed homes and displaced about 1 million people in Lebanon.

The latest escalation comes after Israel killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on Friday and decimated the leadership of the most powerful paramilitary force in the Middle East.

Here’s what we know.

Extent of incursion unclear

Israeli officials have characterized the incursion into southern Lebanon as limited in scope, saying there will be “no long-term occupation.”

The Israeli military said it was focused on removing “immediate threats” from Lebanese villages along the border, including Hezbollah’s ability to infiltrate northern Israel.

But officials have declined to say how deep Israeli troops would venture into the country or how long the operation is expected to last.

Israeli leaders have hinted that further action would come. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops near the Lebanese border that the assassination of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was “a very important step, but it is not the final one,” and that “we will employ all the capabilities at our disposal.”

While the extent of Israel’s military plans inside Lebanon remain unclear, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become increasingly defiant of international calls for restraint and de-escalation, as well as widespread outrage over growing civilian casualties in Lebanon and Gaza.

Previous military operations initially declared by Israel to be limited in their goals have proved to be anything but.

Examples include Israel’s years-long occupation of southern Lebanon that began in 1982 with the stated aim of a brief and limited mission to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in the country.

More recently, Israel’s military declared a “limited” operation in Rafah, southern Gaza that has left the city in ruins.

What happened ahead of the incursion?

Shortly before the incursion, Israel’s National Security Cabinet approved the “next phase” of its war with Hezbollah, according to Israeli media.

In preparation, the Israeli military launched small raids and artillery fire across the Lebanon border, and sealed off several communities in northern Israel, limiting the movement of civilians there.

The Lebanese army had also evacuated observation posts at the southern border and moved to barracks in the border villages, according to a Lebanese security source.

Meanwhile, Israel’s air force once again bombed the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, predominantly Shia neighborhoods where Hezbollah has a stronghold.

It follows Israeli airstrikes that hit inside Beirut’s city limits early Monday for the first time since the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel.

Isn’t Israel fighting Hamas in Gaza? Why are Israeli troops now in Lebanon?

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have been engaged in a tit-for-tat escalation since the war in Gaza began following Hamas’ attack on Israel last October. Hezbollah has said it will not stop striking Israel until a ceasefire is reached in the Palestinian enclave, much of which has been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombs and fighting.

In recent weeks, Israel has refocused its military objectives north with a new war aim to return displaced residents to their homes along the Lebanon border. About 60,000 Israeli civilians have been forced from their homes by Hezbollah’s rocket attacks.

What’s unfolded is some of the fiercest fighting between the two longtime foes since the 2006 Lebanon war, which killed 1,100 in the country. Nearly 50 Israeli civilians and 121 Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Last month, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon in a coordinated Israeli attack that killed dozens of people and maimed thousands, including women and children.

Israel has also stepped up a relentless bombing campaign across Lebanon targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure and leadership, but the strikes have also decimated homes and neighborhoods in densely populated areas. Massive airstrikes in southern Beirut have killed a string of Hezbollah leaders, as well as more than 1,000 people.

The Iran question

The latest developments raise questions about how a weakened Hezbollah will respond, and the extent to which its backer Iran could get involved, once more ratcheting up fears of a wider regional war.

Hezbollah is part of an Iran-led alliance spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Iraq that has attacked Israel and its allies since the war with Hamas began.

In a fiery speech on Sunday, Netanyahu said one of Israel’s goals is “changing the balance of power in the region” and that “there is no place in Iran or the Middle East that the long arm of Israel will not reach.”

Killing Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and wiping out the group’s capabilities to launch a large-scale attack on Israel were “necessary” conditions to achieve that goal, he said.

Israel has also ramped up attacks on multiple fronts against other Iran-backed militants, including launching strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

But despite the recent Israeli strikes on its proxies, Iran has appeared wary of moving into direct conflict with its longtime enemy, even as their decades-long shadow war has been pushed further into the open. Many observers fear any direct Iranian retaliation could draw the United States further into the conflict.

How has the US reacted?

Attention has focused on how the once-mighty US is increasingly powerless to rein in its ally or to influence other major belligerents in a fast-worsening regional crisis.

The White House on Monday said Israel has the right to defend itself, but warned of the risk of “mission creep” in a ground operation that could ultimately broaden in scope and turn into a longer-term incursion.

President Joe Biden last week unveiled a 21-day ceasefire proposal, backed by other US allies, that was almost immediately rejected by Netanyahu – to the frustration of the White House.

The US is a key provider of Israel’s weapons — it likely supplied the 2,000-pound bombs  used to kill Hezbollah’s leader — but Biden and his advisers have continued to call for a diplomatic resolution.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated his pledge to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan on the eve of Communist China’s 75th birthday, as Beijing flexed its military might in the run-up to the national holiday.

At a state banquet celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic on Monday, Xi used his address to underscore his resolve to achieve the “complete reunification of the motherland.”

“It’s an irreversible trend, a cause of righteousness and the common aspiration of the people. No one can stop the march of history,” he told the thousands in attendance at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own, despite having never controlled it, and has vowed to “reunify” with the self-governing democracy, by force if necessary.

But many people on the island view themselves as distinctly Taiwanese and have no desire to be part of Communist China.

The two sides have been ruled by separate governments since 1949, after the end of the Chinese civil war. The communists took power in Beijing and founded the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, while the defeated nationalists fled to Taiwan, moving the seat of the Republic of China from the mainland to Taipei.

Successive Chinese leaders have vowed to one day take control of Taiwan, but Xi, China’s most assertive leader in decades, has ramped up rhetoric and aggression against the democratic island – fueling tension across the strait and raising concerns for a military confrontation.

“Taiwan is China’s sacred territory. Blood is thicker than water, and people on both sides of the strait are connected by blood,” Xi told the banquet attended by more than 3,000 people, including officials, retired party leaders and foreign dignitaries.

He also called for deeper economic and cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait and promotion of “spiritual harmony of compatriots on both sides.”

“(We must) resolutely oppose ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities,” Xi said.

Beijing has labeled Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te a “dangerous separatist,” and tensions have ratcheted up since Lai’s inauguration in May, during which he called on China to cease its intimidation of Taiwan.

Taiwan officials say Beijing has intensified military activities around the island in recent months, including drills in May that the Chinese military said were designed to test its ability to “seize power” over the island.

On Sunday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it was on alert after detecting “multiple waves” of missile firing deep in inland China.

The missiles were fired by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force in the inland regions of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang, the ministry said in a statement, adding that Taiwan’s air defense forces have “maintained a high level of vigilance and strengthened their alert.”

It comes just days after China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean for the first time in 44 years, in a rare public test that analysts said was meant to send a message to the United States and its allies amid heightened regional tensions.

The issue of Taiwan has become a major point of contention between China and the US, which maintains close but informal relations with Taipei and is bound by law to supply the island with weapons to defend itself.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden approved an additional $567 million in military support for Taiwan in the largest aid package America has granted the island. The funding will cover defense articles as well as “military education and training,” the White House said in a statement.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made his first public remarks since his release after he struck a deal with the United States, saying he is free because he pleaded “guilty to journalism.”

The 53-year-old on Tuesday traveled to the French city of Strasbourg to appear before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and provide evidence on his detention and conviction, and on their effects on human rights.

“I want to be totally clear: I am not free today because the system worked,” Assange told lawmakers. “I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.”

Assange was released in June after agreeing to plead guilty to a single felony charge in exchange for time served. The deal was finalized in a remote US court in the Pacific before he flew on to his native Australia.

He had been locked up in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison for five years and sought refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital for nearly seven years before that, in a bid to avoid potentially spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Before his deal with the US Justice Department, the Australian had been facing 18 criminal charges related to his organization’s dissemination of classified material and diplomatic cables, and a 175-year jail sentence.

Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella and WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, appeared calm and at ease during his roughly 20-minute statement on Tuesday.

Taiwan has put its military units on standby and closed schools and offices across several counties on Tuesday, as the island braces for a powerful typhoon set to make landfall in the next couple days, after bashing the Philippines.

Super Typhoon Krathon, equivalent to a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, is currently situated in the Bashi Channel in the northern part of the Luzon Strait, between Taiwan and the Philippines. As of 11:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, it had winds of 240 kph (150 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).

It is expected to weaken slightly before making landfall near Taiwan’s major port city of Kaohsiung on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning local time, as it moves northeast across the island, bringing heavy rains, strong winds and storm surge.

The storm, known locally in the Philippines as Julien, has already lashed the country’s northernmost islands, prompting evacuations and severe flooding in coastal communities. Rainfalls of up to 100-200mm (4-8 inches) have been recorded across the northern Batanes islands.

Nearly 23,000 families in three regions have been affected by the storm, the Philippines’ national disaster agency said Tuesday, according to the Philippine News Agency, as authorities work to assess the damage.

On Tuesday, Taiwan’s president warned of the “catastrophic damage” that the storm could impose on the island and warned “everyone must be particularly vigilant.”

“Typhoon Krathon has intensified into a strong typhoon with strong wind, heavy rain and high storm surge, and it is set to bring catastrophic damage,” Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday during a visit to the Central Emergency Operations Center, which was set up over the weekend to coordinate response measures to the typhoon.

Taiwan generally has a strong track record of responding to major typhoons though remote villages in more mountainous region can be particularly vulnerable to landslides.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) has issued a sea and land typhoon warning for southern and eastern parts of the island, warning the typhoon could pose a significant threat due to its slow speed and bring torrential rains to parts of the southeast.

In Kaohsiung, the biggest city in southern Taiwan with a population of 2.7 million and a major cargo port, emergency responders have already evacuated 1,690 people from high-risk areas, according to city mayor Chen Chi-mai.

More than 15,000 Taiwanese soldiers are on standby across different parts of the island to assist with evacuation and rescue efforts, Taiwan’s defense ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters on Monday.

Krathon is set to be the second typhoon to make landfall on Taiwan this year, after Typhoon Gaemi struck the island in July, killing 11 people.

Some train services in eastern Taiwan have already been suspended, and a highway in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien county has partially closed due to landslides, according to transportation authorities.