Archiv: politics-more-politics-completely-politics
Folks, today I tested positive for COVID again. This happens with a small minority of folks. I’ve got no symptoms but I am going to isolate for the safety of everyone around me. I’m still at work, and will be back on the road soon.
Oil rises $2/bbl after G7 vows new Russian sanctions
Oil rose $2 a barrel on Monday on the prospect of even tighter supplies loomed over the market as the Group of Seven nations promised to tighten the squeeze on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest while actually lowering energy prices.
Hillary Clinton personally approved plan to share Trump-Russia allegation with the press in 2016, campaign manager says
(Fri May 20, 2022)
Robby Mook said he attended a meeting with other senior campaign officials where they learned about strange cyberactivity that suggested a relationship between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which is based in Moscow. The group decided to share the information with a reporter, and Mook subsequently ran that decision by Clinton herself.
„We discussed it with Hillary,“ Mook said, later adding that „she agreed with the decision.“
US-backed Middle East states cozy up to Russia during Ukraine invasion
A few months later, the Ukrainian government asked the U.S. government to purchase the Iron Dome anti-missile system. Because the Iron Dome is a joint U.S.-Israeli project, the sale also required permission from the Israeli government, which Israel reportedly refused to grant.
That refusal was not based on any concern with whether the sale was a good idea for Eastern Europe, but on Israel’s desire to maintain a good relationship with Russia, according to the Times of Israel. Russia, which has forces stationed in Syria, gives Israel tacit permission to intervene in the Syrian civil war.
It’s also important 4folks 2remember that the Israeli government led by PM Netanyahu doesn’t speak 4even half of Israeli voters & Hamas doesn’t speak 4even half of Palestinian voters. Both people are casualties in a conflict caused by divisive leaders who don’t care about them
.. The current violence emboldens Hamas and bolsters Bibi Netanyahu; all to the detriment of the Israeli and Palestinian people. It’s terrible.
Gaza Flare-up: Teen, Father Killed in City of Lod as Central Israel Comes Under Gaza Rocket Attack
Nadine and Khalil Awaad, the father and daughter who were killed during rocket attacks on their village of Dhamas near Lod, had no way of defending themselves from the rocket fire. Like the other homes in their village, they had no bomb shelter. Their relative, Ismail Arafat, lives there as well and has been part of leading the struggle for recognition of the village.
“We have nowhere to go. We don’t have a bomb shelter here for everyone. For the Thai [migrant] workers they built shelters, but we were not allowed because we are not humans. Nadine and Khalil were in the middle of breakfast before fasting. It seems that he opened the door and that’s how he was hit.”
I’m surprised this isn’t being said more often. This looks like a wag the dog war: Bibi fails to form a government, so is now taking provocative actions against Palestinians to undermine Abbas’s endorsement of a Lapid-Bennett coalition.
Israel rejects Hamas pleas for truce in Gaza flare-up: reports
Israel has rejected Hamas messages seeking an end to the ongoing Gaza flare-up at least three times, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
According to Channel 12, while international negotiators relayed the appropriate message to Jerusalem, it showed no appetite for a deal.
A Kan public broadcaster reporter cited Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry as saying that Cairo did not receive a „positive answer“ from Israel after contacts on a truce.
Rivals’ Coalition Talks Mean Netanyahu’s in No Rush to De-escalate Gaza Tensions
United Arab List Chairman Mansour Abbas suspends talks with Lapid amid violence in Jerusalem and Gaza, giving Netanyahu an incentive to keep tensions high
Gaza Flare-up: Two Women in Israel Killed as Militants Expand Rocket Fire; Direct Hit to Israeli Homes, School
Israel says it assassinated senior Islamic Jihad, Hamas operatives ■ Twenty-eight Gazans, including 10 children, reported killed ■ Direct hit to Israeli houses, dozens wounded, as Iron Dome battery malfunctions
Far-right lawmakers‘ visit to Sheikh Jarrah reignites clashes
(10.05.2021)
Religious Zionist Party chief MK Bezalel Smotrich, who arrived at the contentious area with several members of his faction, slammed law enforcement and security forces‘ for their lax treatment against Palestinian violence and called for the formation of a stable government that can tackle the unrest.
Bayt al-qasid (heart of the matter): “current escalation benefits (Netanyahu). Will make it difficult for Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid to form coalition in coming days, and certainly casts pall on their efforts to obtain support of any kind from the two Arab Knesset factions.”
Israel Coalition Talks: Islamist Party Freezes Negotiations in Wake of Jerusalem, Gaza Flare-up
Lapid was supposed to meet on Monday with Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett and United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas, but the latter suspended coalition negotiations and put off the meeting due to the security situation.
Jerusalem Flare-up Leads to Over 100 Gaza Rockets; 22 Reported Dead in Israeli Strikes
Hamas said it fired rockets ‚in response to the enemy’s aggression in the holy city‘ ■ Nine Palestinian children reported killed ■ Home in southern Israel takes direct hit, no casualties reported
In Leaked Tape, Iran’s Zarif Says Soleimani, Russia Tried to Sabotage Nuke Deal
Zarif also blames Soleimani for being in cahoots with Russia, which “put all its weight” behind sabotaging the nuclear deal with the U.S. and world powers, as well as allowing Russian fighter jets to fly over Iran for Syrian bombing raids, letting Russia use Iranian airliners to move military personnel and equipment, and deploying Iranian soldiers on the ground in Syria.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, in Leaked Tape, Says Revolutionary Guards Set Policies
The recording, of a conversation in March between Mr. Zarif and an economist named Saeed Leylaz, an ally, was not meant for publication, as the foreign minister can repeatedly be heard saying on the audio. A copy was leaked to the London-based Persian news channel Iran International, which first reported on the recording and shared it with The New York Times.
‚National security adviser to present Washington with sensitive information on Iran‘
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting to consolidate an Israeli strategy on Iran’s nuclear program given the progress being made among signatories to the deal in talks in Vienna.
According to the official, should Iran engage in serious talks on an improved accord, Israel would share its position on what such an accord should look like. The official further noted that at the meeting, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel was not a signatory to the accord and as such was not committed to it.
White House: Israeli delegation will not sway Biden into abandoning Iran nuclear deal
An Israeli security delegation due to visit Washington on Monday will not change the Biden administration’s position on rejoining the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a press briefing on Friday.
The team of senior officials led by Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat plan to express their objections to the White House, which is currently emerged in indirect negotiations with Tehran in Vienna.
Israeli officials will object to restoration of Iran deal in D.C. visit
(22.04.2021)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the delegation traveling to Washington, D.C. next week for strategic talks on Iran to stress their objection to a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal and to refuse to discuss its contents, Israeli officials say.
Netanyahu Can’t Be Trusted to Keep Israel Out of War With Iran
A series of widely reported attacks on targets in Iran and Iranian ships that were attributed to Israel reached a peak with the explosion at the nuclear facility in Natanz. Iran’s response was not slow to come this time. Tehran announced that it had begun enriching uranium to a purity of 60 percent, triple its previous level and approaching the level needed to produce a nuclear bomb. That, at a time when U.S. President Joe Biden is putting great effort into indirect negotiations aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement.
‚Change bloc‘ floating 1-year rotation agreement between Bennett and Lapid – report
Such an arrangement, according to the Hebrew-language broadcaster, would possibly last for 12 months and followed by a new election.
But prospects for such a deal are being hampered by ideological and political differences, as well as a disagreement over who would serve as premier first, with Channel 12 reporting that Bennett is insisting he go first in the rotation.
The Iran Contra Affairs – Iran: Other Relevant Conflicts
The Iran-Iraq war was the main reason why Iran was so need of weapons, and thus was willing to purchase them from the U.S. and Israel. The Reagan Administration’s decision to sell arms to Iran was particularly shocking because the U.S. had publicly supported Iraq, along with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other small mideast nations.
‘Chatgate’ scandal throws Puerto Rico’s governor into crisis
(16.07.2019)
Last week, two of his top former officials were arrested by the FBI on corruption charges.
But the scandal that is threatening to buckle the boyish 40-year-old governor centers on a profanity-laced and at times misogynistic online chat with nine other male members of his administration in which some of the U.S. territory’s most powerful men act like a bunch of teenagers.
These are some of the leaked chat messages at the center of Puerto Rico’s political crisis
(17.07.2019)
The governor and 11 top aides and Cabinet members exchanged profanity-laced, homophobic and misogynistic messages about fellow politicians, members of the media, celebrities and others in a scandal many are calling „RickyLeaks.“
A Telegram chat may (rightfully) bring down Puerto Rico’s governor
(16.07.2019)
Calls for the governor to resign have grown after nearly 900 pages of a chat on the private messaging app Telegram were leaked by a source to Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism, which published them in their entirety on Saturday.
U.S. Accuses Iran of ‘Nuclear Extortion’ and Vows More Sanctions
At the Vienna meeting, the American ambassador, Jackie Wolcott, said that “there is no credible reason for Iran to expand its nuclear program, and there is no way to read this as anything other than a crude and transparent attempt to extort payments from the international community.” The only path to sanctions relief, she said, is “through negotiations, not nuclear extortion.”
‚Sadistic‘ sanctions: Iran blasts US during IAEA confrontation
The IAEA confirmed this week that Iran exceeded the stockpile of enriched uranium permitted under the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran has said it will disregard certain limits under JCPOA as long as the remaining parties to the deal – in particular, the UK, France and Germany – do not do more to mitigate the effect of the crippling US sanctions.