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      Turning a Page, Germans Try Celebrating Their Recent Veterans

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      In a changed world, Germany’s government is trying to recruit more soldiers. A first step? Getting citizens to appreciate their military again.Like many good Veterans Day celebrations, the one in central Berlin on Sunday featured feats of strength. A former Naval boatswain named Peter Christian Duszynski, 35, pulled on a heavy bulletproof vest and reeled off nine flawless chin-ups. When he got stuck on the 10th, the crowd laughed and cheered him on.For Mr. Duszynski, the reception was welcome. Unlike Americans, British and others, Germans rarely show warm public support for former or active service members. The nation remains deeply ashamed of its Nazi past. Until Sunday, it had not celebrated an official Veterans Day since it reunified at the end of the Cold War.That reticence has been an obstacle as German leaders try to rebuild military strength, in order to counter a hostile Russia and hedge against a shrinking American security umbrella. Officials are now trying to recruit 60,000 new soldiers on very short notice. They need more than money to do it.They need the country to start appreciating its armed forces again.Visitors listening to Julia Klöckner, president of the German Parliament, give the day’s opening speech.Lena Mucha for The New York TimesThat is why, in the shadow of Berlin’s Parliament building, officials staged a main-event veterans’ celebration on Sunday. Across Germany, there were hundreds of related festivities, including more street fairs, communal breakfasts, bicycle races, hiking treks and photo exhibitions.“The soldiers are there, but they are usually not seen,” said Mr. Duszynski, 35, who had missions in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. “I think it’s important that we take steps to become more visible.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      As Trump Returns to G7, Rift With Allies Is Even Deeper

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      In 2018, the president called for the group to embrace Russia and stormed out of the summit. Now he is seeking to shrink America’s military role abroad and embarking on a more expansive trade war.When President Trump last attended a Group of 7 meeting in Canada, he was in many ways the odd man out.At that meeting, in 2018, Mr. Trump called for the alliance of Western countries to embrace Russia, antagonized allies and ultimately stormed out of the summit over a trade battle he began by imposing metals tariffs on Canada.As he returns on Sunday for the Group of 7 meeting in Alberta, those fissures have only deepened. Since retaking office, the president has sought to shrink America’s military role abroad and made threats to annex the summit’s host after embarking on a much more expansive trade war.Mr. Trump is now facing a self-imposed deadline of early July to reach trade deals. His trade adviser even promised in April that the tariffs would lead to “90 deals in 90 days.” Despite reaching framework agreements with Britain and China, the administration has shown scant progress on deals with other major trading partners.The future of the president’s favored negotiating tool is uncertain as a legal battle over his tariffs plays out in the courts. But a failure to reach accords could lead the Trump administration to once again ratchet up tariffs and send markets roiling.“I think we’ll have a few new trade deals,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday as he left for the summit.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Diplomacy With Iran Is Damaged, Not Dead

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      The push to do a deal on the country’s nuclear program could be revived, even after the Israeli strikes scuppered the latest round of talks.If war is diplomacy by other means, diplomacy is never finished. While Israel and Iran are in the midst of what could be an extended war that could spread, the possibility of renewed talks to deal with Iran’s expanding nuclear program should not be discounted.Negotiations are on hold while the war continues, and the future of diplomacy is far from clear. Iran will feel compelled to respond to Israel, and the Israeli campaign could last for days or weeks. For now Washington does not appear to be doing anything to press both sides to stop the violence and start talking again.But the Iranians say they still want a deal, as does President Trump. The shape of future talks will inevitably depend on when and how the fighting stops.“We are prepared for any agreement aimed at ensuring Iran does not pursue nuclear weapons,” the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told foreign diplomats in Tehran on Sunday. But his country would not accept any deal that “deprives Iran of its nuclear rights,” he added, including the right to enrich uranium, albeit at low levels that can be used for civilian purposes.Mr. Araghchi said Israel did not attack to pre-empt Iran’s race toward a bomb, which Iran denies trying to develop, but to derail negotiations on a deal that Mr. Netanyahu opposes.The attacks are “an attempt to undermine diplomacy and derail negotiations,” he continued, a view shared by various Western analysts. “It is entirely clear that the Israeli regime does not want any agreement on the nuclear issue,” he said. “It does not want negotiations and does not seek diplomacy.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, Iran’s missile barrages killed at least six people.

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      Most of those confirmed dead were women and children, according to the authorities, although they have yet to name the victims publicly.Orange-vested emergency workers were clambering over rubble on Sunday morning in the central Israeli coastal city of Bat Yam in the wake of an Iranian missile strike that killed at least six people and wounded scores of others.Paramedics were still trying to save three people who were trapped under debris, according to the Israeli military, hours after the missile evaded Israel’s air defenses. Four people remained unaccounted for, the military said.Most of those confirmed dead were women and children, according to the authorities, although they have yet to publicly name the victims. Chaotic scenes were replicated across northern and central Israel after a long night of Iranian missile attacks.Many Israelis have a certain nonchalance about missile fire, the product of both near-constant rocket attacks and the country’s sophisticated aerial defenses. But the destructive attacks in Bat Yam and elsewhere overnight — in which 10 people were confirmed killed — underscored how Israel’s current escalation with heavily armed Iran differs from fighting armed paramilitaries like Hamas and Hezbollah.In Rehovot, another city south of Tel Aviv, debris from the overnight attack filled the streets. Bloodstained bandages and white surgical gloves lay by a roadside bench. Rescue workers picked through shattered glass, searching for survivors.“Is there anyone inside?” a police officer shouted, peering into a shop damaged by the strikes.In Bat Yam, hundreds of residents who had evacuated their homes near the blast site — many of which were left uninhabitable by the explosion — gathered at a nearby school to wait for officials to tell them where to go.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What to Know About Iran’s Ballistic Missiles and the Attacks on Israel

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      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel presented Iran’s sophisticated ballistic missiles as a critical threat to Israel’s survival.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said that the sweeping attacks on Iran that began early Friday are essential to cripple what he describes as not one, but two “existential” threats to his country.Alongside Iran’s nuclear program, which Mr. Netanyahu has warned about for decades, he cites a newer menace: Iran’s ballistic missiles, more than 200 of which have been launched against Israel in waves of retaliatory barrages this weekend.Even as Israel has pummeled Iran with its own sophisticated missiles, setting oil facilities in Tehran ablaze, it still fears Iran’s capacity for fierce retaliation.In a video statement on Friday night, Mr. Netanyahu said Iran had accelerated production and aimed to manufacture 300 ballistic missiles a month, which would amount to 20,000 missiles within six years. He said each one was like “a bus-full of explosives” primed to land on Israeli cities.Here’s what you need to know:How many missiles has Iran fired, and how many of them hit Israel?What have the Iranians been trying to hit?How many missiles does Iran have left?How powerful are the missiles hitting Israel?What has Israel learned about Iran’s missile capabilities?How many missiles has Iran fired, and how many of them hit Israel?Iran has launched about 200 missiles at Israel since Friday night, in addition to scores of explosive drones, according to the Israeli authorities.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Two Major Energy Facilities in Tehran Hit in Israeli Strikes

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      Across Iran’s capital, flames and smoke covered the sky.Israel’s latest wave of attacks on Iran took out Tehran’s main gas depot and its central oil refinery in separate parts of the capital, engulfing its sky in smoke and flame early Sunday.The Shahran fuel and gasoline depot, which has at least 11 storage tanks, was hit and set afire during the Israeli attack that began on Saturday night, Iran’s oil ministry said in a statement. Shahran is in an affluent neighborhood of luxury high rises.“The fire is terrifying, it’s massive; there is a lot of commotion here,” said Mostafa Shams, a resident of the area. “It’s the gasoline depots that are exploding one after another, it’s loud and scary.”Separately in the city’s south, Shahr Rey, one of the country’s largest oil refineries, was also struck, according to Iranian state news media. Emergency crews were trying to contain the fire, and a resident of Tehran, Reza Salehi, said he could see the flames from miles away.Israel’s targeting of Iran’s energy facilities, a crucial source of export cash for the country as well as of domestic energy, represented a significant escalation in its military campaign against Tehran.Earlier on Saturday, Israel had struck two key Iranian energy sites, including a section of the South Pars Gas Field, which is one of the world’s largest and critical to Iran’s energy production.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Israel Expands Attack to Include Iran’s Oil and Gas Industry

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      Iran has been battling an acute energy crisis for months because of gas shortages, and repairing any damage would both be costly and take significant time.In a widening of its military campaign against Iran, Israel targeted Iran’s critical energy infrastructure at gas and petrochemical refineries on Saturday, according to a statement from Iran’s oil ministry.The statement said Israeli drones had targeted a section of the South Pars Gas Field in Bushehr Province. South Pars is one of the world’s largest gas fields and a critical part of Iran’s energy production. The Fajr Jam Gas Refining Company was also targeted, the ministry said.Iran is one of the world’s major energy producers. It has the second-largest gas reserves in the world and fourth-largest crude oil reserves.Videos posted to social media and verified by The Times showed a large fire burning at the South Pars gas refinery in Iran’s southern Bushehr Province.The explosions took production lines at both facilities offline, the ministry statement said, even as firefighters and emergency crew had largely contained the blazes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Israel and Ukraine Show How Drone Smuggling Is Powerful New War Technique

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      Launching weapons from within their territory forces adversaries to look not only outward but also inside for threats, one expert said.Small, difficult to detect and able to pack a powerful punch, attack drones have become a formidable weapon in modern warfare. But when launched from deep inside enemy territory — as in Iran and in Russia this month — their impact is all the more devastating.The surprise factor of having to fend off drones attacking from within combines a classic military strategy with modern technology. Spy craft and covert operations have long been a part of combat, but using them to build or deploy deadly drones behind enemy lines is a new tactic in the ever-evolving art of war, officials and weapons experts said.That was the case two weeks ago, when more than 40 Russian war planes were hit by a swarm of 117 drones that Ukraine had secretly planted near military bases in Russia months earlier. Some were thousands of miles from Ukraine.It was also the case in Iran, which lost missiles, interceptors and air defense systems that were destroyed on Friday by drones and other weapons that Israeli intelligence operatives had smuggled in earlier.Many of the details about the secretive operations, and how they were carried out, remain murky to protect methods of intelligence collection and sources of covert information.But Israel’s approach gave it an edge in its wide-ranging attack against Iran “because it’s coming from left flank,” said Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general and defense strategist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More