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(March 27, 2023 8:13 pm)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would temporarily freeze his government’s controversial plans to enfeeble the judicial system, following a night of mass demonstrations across the country and an unprecedented general strike.
Netanyahu said that he ordered „the timeout“ on the controversial legislation until after the Knesset recess in order „to give a real opportunity for real dialogue.“
Crude prices posted their largest weekly gains since the middle of 2020, with the Brent benchmark up 21% and U.S. crude gaining 26%. The most commonly traded oil futures closed at levels not seen since 2013 and 2008, respectively.
Earlier in the day, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia would voluntarily reduce crude oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March in order to contribute to the restoration of market relations.
(03.02.2023)
It’s also unclear exactly what drove the decrease in Saudi shipments, which dropped by 580,000 barrels a day last month, or about 8%.
Billström said Sweden is determined to fulfill its commitments and Stockholm was in the process of strengthening its “anti-terrorism” legislation.
A constitutional amendment will enter into force on January 1 that restricts the freedom of association of groups that engage in or support “terrorism”, he said.
The Swedish government also plans to introduce legislation that further impedes people taking part in the activities of “terrorist” groups, Billström said.
(18 Aug 2021)
(06.01.2007)
There is no other way to find logic or sense in the grotesque mountain of insignificant details, trivial conclusions, simplistic lessons, and bombastic nonsense that fills the working papers, investigation summaries, media reports, and officer discussions.
Some of those „conclusions and lessons“ looked and sounded like a cruel parody produced by an uninhibited satirist: „The elimination of the Katyusha rocket threat was not defined as an objective,“ „the activity was not defined as war,“ „the objectives were not defined using clear military language…“
A letter from Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and members of the U.N. Security Council was obtained by The Associated Press ahead of a closed council meeting late Wednesday requested by Britain, France and the United States on Iran’s sale of hundreds of drones to Russia.
The three Western countries strongly back Ukraine’s contention that the drones were transferred to Russia and violate a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the nuclear deal between Iran and six key nations — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear activities and preventing the country from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran is planning to aid Moscow’s war in Ukraine by sending more weapons to Moscow, according to anonymous U.S. and Western security officials, the Washington Post reported.
The planned weapons delivery from Tehran could include two types of surface-to-surface missiles, officials said, adding to the Iranian attack drones reportedly supplied to Moscow back in August.
„It is our belief that these UAVs that were transferred from Iran to Russia and used by Russia in Ukraine are among the weapons that would remain embargoed under 2231,“ said Vedant Patel of the state department.
(today)
In a number of cases, strikes were carried out using Geran-2 loitering ammunition.
Commenting on the situation, Arestovich said that the Russian troops „picked up the key to the Ukrainian air defense.“
According to Arestovich, the massive use of drones by Russia is aimed at ensuring that Ukraine shoots off its entire stock of anti-aircraft missiles. At the same time, an adviser in Zelensky’s office claims that Russia “ordered about 2400 more drones from Iran.”
(25.09.022)
Strikes continued with the use of loitering ammunition at enemy military facilities in Odessa. According to the latest data, the new strikes were carried out using Geran-2 strike drones, which are called an exact copy of Iranian Shahed-136 drones.
(04.10.2022)
The first rumor was that Russia was pushing OPEC+ to implement a 1 million bpd production cut. The group was later reportedly considering a production cut between 500,000 bpd and 1 million bpd. Shortly after, yet another source said that OPEC+ was considering an even larger cut of more than 1 million bpd. The latest news from OPEC+ delegates suggests that the group is considering yet another option: a 2 million bpd cut.
The first rumor was that Russia was pushing OPEC+ to implement a 1 million bpd production cut. The group was later reportedly considering a production cut between 500,000 bpd and 1 million bpd. Shortly after, yet another source said that OPEC+ was considering an even larger cut of more than 1 million bpd. The latest news from OPEC+ delegates suggests that the group is considering yet another option: a 2 million bpd cut.
If the United States and Iran successfully wrap up their nuclear negotiations, Tehran will be free once again to sell its crude legally. According to one energy analyst, Iran could put 1 to 2 million barrels per day on the market rather quickly, which means an abundance of supply and lower returns (not to mention more competition) for the Saudis. While the nuclear talks have again hit a standstill over last-minute disputes, Riyadh doesn’t want to see oil drop to $65 a barrel and is therefore signaling to the market that adjustments will be made in the event Iran is able to return as a full player. Frankly, OPEC has gotten used to $100 a barrel crude, and it has no intention of going back to the days when supply vastly outstripped demand.
(06.09.2022)
“The simple tweak shows that we will be attentive, preemptive and pro-active in terms of supporting the stability and the efficient functioning of the market to the benefit of market participants and the industry,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said.
The attempted murder of author Salman Rushdie prompted social media users, including several members of Congress, to voice criticism of the Biden administration’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran in light of the country’s past support of a fatwa against Rushdie’s life.
A political analyst says pro-Israel lobbies and groups that oppose Iran’s nuclear deal with the West, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would take advantage of the Friday night attack on anti-Islam blasphemous novelist Salman Rushdie and pin it on Iran to diminish the prospects of an agreement.
The memo circulated on Tory WhatsApp group reportedly attacks the former chancellor personally and accused him of having a “big tax and big spend agenda”.
According to The Telegraph, which first reported the “mucky memo”, the 424-word anti-Sunak missive was written by someone on the Thatcherite right of the party.
But he can, technically, be deposed as Tory leader and remain in office. He will not be removed from No 10 until he tenders his resignation as prime minister, or until he loses a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons (the last PM to lose such a vote was Labour’s Jim Callaghan in March 1979). Johnson will not, like Donald Trump, attempt to stay in power once the Tory party does select a new leader, but he has notably chosen not to tender his resignation as prime minister until it does.
„For this, several workers were detained and tortured with a demand of confession, or rather, slandering themselves, that they allegedly dropped some kind of weapon into the concrete bowls of the cooling pools at Zaporizhia NPP in March,“ the company informed.
The company explained the invaders, under this pretext, insist on draining the cooling pools – to check its bowls – and stopping the pumps that supply water to the security systems of power units.
„If this happens, then the security systems of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant will be left without cooling, which in itself is a serious violation and can threaten nuclear safety.
As another Uvalde student is laid to rest, Texas officials are calling for the end of the „dead suspect loophole,“ which can stop records from being released.
(Jul. 9, 2018)
A group of more than 40 human rights activists have filed a petition with the High Court of Justice, demanding the cessation of Israeli arms exports to Ukraine.
They argue that these weapons serve forces that openly espouse a neo-Nazi ideology and cite evidence that the right-wing Azov militia, whose members are part of Ukraine’s armed forces, and are supported by the country’s ministry of internal affairs, is using these weapons.
American instructors are training the Ukrainian military in Germany and other European countries as part of providing assistance to the Ukrainian army, Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing on Friday.
„This new training effort in Germany and at other locations in Europe is in direct support of recent U.S. security assistance packages that are designed to help Ukraine,“ he said.
„My son was kidnapped. #Russians kidnapped him. He is only 16 years old. I don’t know where my son is now. I appeal to #European community, to all humanity – help me. Let the whole world know that Russians are kidnapping children here in the country,“ said Oleg Buryak.
Asked about the immediate aftermath of Silman’s resignation, he said that „the first order of business was to stabilize the faction. I’ve spoken with the party heads and this government is moving forward. The alternative is to return to the dark days of more election campaigns. Instead of fighting terrorism, fighting each other.“
Bennett further rejected the assertion that the current 60-60 situation in the Knesset has left his government paralyzed, saying that political paralysis „is measured in actions. Controversial laws are hard to pass, but we have no issue with regular legislation.“
(April 6, 2022)
Netanyahu has been relatively quiet on Ukraine, which would put him at odds with the current administration and key parts of the U.S. Republican Party. In the past he has seen Putin as a partner in fighting Iranian influence in Syria and in the effort to keep Iran from supplying Hezbollah and Hamas with cash and weapons. That is similar to Bennett’s policy, though it is hard to imagine Bibi trying to mediate the conflict or allowing his foreign minister to call Putin a war criminal, as Lapid is now doing.
(08.04.2022)
On Wednesday, Idit Silman, a right-wing member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, announced her defection from Bennett’s political party, Yamina, robbing the government of its majority.
The coalition whip is said to have resigned after reports of middle-of-the-night secret meetings between the former PM and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is desperate for a political comeback.
The crisis comes after a series of deadly attacks in Israel that killed 11 Israelis, putting high pressure on the government.
To the bystander, it’s clear that this government’s prospects of serving out its full term were very much reduced on Wednesday. Even if an election is still a complicated and distant scenario, the political turmoil aids the revolution that opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to foment at a critical moment in his trial, when the testimony of Shlomo Filber, who has turned state’s evidence, raises the danger of a prison term for the former prime minister.
(March 14, 2022)
Bennett, like Netanyahu, has been a fierce opponent of the Iran nuclear deal, which lifts sanctions on Iranian trade. The Biden Administration and its European allies want the deal, but, in the Moscow meeting with Bennett, Putin elaborated on a new roadblock to its signing. Sanctions imposed on Russia by the U.S. and European powers mean that any third-party company or government entity that trades with Russia may itself be sanctioned. Putin now insists that Russia’s support for the final deal is contingent on its being able to trade freely with Iran—which the original deal allowed.
“We condemn this terrorist attack launched against several sectors of Erbil, we call on the inhabitants to remain calm,” Kurdistan prime minister Masrour Barzani said in a statement.
The attack comes several days after an Israeli strike near Damascus, Syria killed two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
“Direct confrontation between Nato and Russia is World War III – something we must strive to prevent,“ Mr Biden added.
However, he vowed that Russia would pay a „severe price“ if it used chemical weapons in Ukraine.
It comes as Kyiv warned that Belarus could join Russia’s invasion as early as this evening after Russian fighter jets fired at Belarus from Ukrainian air space in an apparent ‘false flag’ attack to involve Minsk in the conflict.
Moscow did not immediately comment on a statement by Ukraine’s border service that several Belarusian border villages had been bombed by Russian warplanes to create a reason for Belarus to join Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Q: Is there any concern that Russia’s actually doing this because they’re planning some sort of chem-biological attack?
MR. KIRBY: Yes, Court. I mean, again, not being perfectly inside the minds of the Russians. We have seen one of their playbooks is to accuse the other that which you are doing or what you plan to do. And to create a narrative that of victimhood and blaming somebody else for something that you’re in fact going to do. I have no evidence of that. I’m not suggesting that that’s in the offing right now.
I have no intelligence and indicators that, that type of weaponry is in Ukraine and being planned to be used. So, I want to be clear, but it is a piece of the Russian playbook to blame others for that which you are about to do or you are considering doing. They’ve done that plenty of times before.
Russia hastily called a Friday morning U.N. Security Council meeting late on Thursday evening to discuss in open debate what it called „the military biological activities of the US on the territory of Ukraine“ — leading the Biden administration to immediately denounce it as a „false flag effort.“
In a comment sent to CBS News, Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said, „We’re not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the UN Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation.“
The attack in Irpin, west of the capital, suggested either direct targeting of evacuees or disregard for the risk of civilian casualties.
There were signs last night of a dying down of the plot — named after more than a dozen MPs met in the office of Alicia Kearns, whose Rutland and Melton seat is the home of pork pie making.
The rebels were still short of gathering the 54 letters needed to be sent to backbench 1922 committee chairman Sir Graham Brady in order to trigger a vote of no confidence in the PM.
In 1977, following revelations of U.S. lethal targeting operations and ensuing Church (Senate) and the Pike (House) Committee hearings, President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order 11,905. The order prohibited Executive Branch personnel from engaging in, or conspiring to engage in, political assassination. Subsequent administrations continued the ban. Four years later, President Regan issued Executive Order 12,333, which, as amended, remains in effect today. It contains the same prohibition, although it limits application to individuals “acting on behalf of” the U.S. government.
Following Mr Putin’s comments on supplies, gas prices dropped to about 257p a therm later on Wednesday.
Deputy prime minister Alexander Novak urged German regulators to quickly certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help.
So, what is the straight line that I see drawn from there to here? As others have asked, was 9/11 a day, a moment, or a whole era-defining shift in America’s understanding and vision of itself at home and abroad? Did the response to 9/11 do as much damage as the attack itself?
I have concluded the answer is yes. My own question is if 20 years on this can be recalibrated, or whether bin Laden’s attack was actually the beginning of the end of American empire.
What Biden outlined was pointedly not an end to the post-9/11 era. Rather, it was a much narrower admission that an idea once shared by conservatives, liberals and foreign policy elites, including Biden himself — that the U.S. could use force to destroy other societies and then rebuild them in America’s image — had proved a failure. And it was an acknowledgment that the nature of warfare, not the enemy, has changed for the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
(02.08.2021)
Mr. Sullivan congratulated Dr. Hulata on his new role and emphasized that he looks forward to working together to strengthen all aspects of the U.S.-Israel partnership. Mr. Sullivan and Dr. Hulata discussed the strategic challenges in the region, including the threat posed by Iran, and agreed to consult closely on these issues.
(04.03.2015)
The prime minister has been warning for over 20 years that Tehran is close to achieving its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
U.S. and European sources familiar with intelligence reporting said on Friday Iran was their leading suspect for the incident, which a U.S. defense official said appeared to have been carried out by a drone, but stressed their governments were seeking conclusive evidence.
(28.07.2021)
The options on the table for the U.S., which are said to include tighter restrictions on Iran’s oil exports as well as new sanctions on its missile and drone programs, are likely to further strain tensions amid the months-long efforts to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name for the Obama-era nuclear deal that the U.S. exited in 2018 under then-President Trump.
The Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu and smallpox, and it is as contagious as chickenpox, according to the document, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
The immediate next step for the agency is to “acknowledge the war has changed,” the document said. Its contents were first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday evening.
The crash in tutoring stocks that began late last week spread Monday across the tech sector and beyond, after authorities confirmed reports they would ban a swathe of the education industry from making profits. It’s the government’s most extreme step yet to rein in private businesses that regulators blame for exacerbating inequality, increasing financial risk and — in the case of some tech titans –- challenging Beijing’s authority.
‚I hope that the roadmap is irreversible,‘ Boris told the nation on Monday. ‚We’ve always said that we hope that it will be irreversible – but in order to have an irreversible roadmap, we also said it’s got to be a cautious approach.‘
That’s not what he’s always said.
– Boris Johnson is facing the prospect of a damaging revolt by dozens of MPs in crucial lockdown vote tonight
– Government all-but guaranteed victory as Labour is backing the move but opposition seems to be growing
– Leaked Whitehall document has suggested that a number of restriction will stay even after new July 19 date
Equating accusations with proven fact is reckless and repressive. It is also standard behavior in liberal politics, whereby they ruin lives without a second thought.
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.
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.
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.
The fear that should now be nesting within the breast of every Israeli is of extreme moves by Netanyahu
– German health officials banned use of AstraZeneca vaccine in under-60s
– Earlier Berlin’s Charite hospital banned AZ jabs for women under the age of 55
– It comes despite authoritative rulings by experts that the jab is safe and effective
– Canada yesterday banned AZ jab for under-55s over the blood clot concerns
The following are ways Netanyahu and Likud can draw Knesset members from other parties to reach 61 MKs and form a new government.
Israel’s Health Ministry is formulating a legislation that will provide workplaces that receive customers the legal framework to compel employees who refuse to vaccinate against COVID-19 to test for the disease every two days, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Monday, according to outlet Ynet.
Netanyahu has tied his fate in the election to COVID vaccinations, and suspicion arises that his proposals are influenced by personal considerations. Meanwhile, disclosing names of Israelis who have yet to get vaccinated paves way for severe infringement of privacy.
There’s good evidence that the shots made by Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc. are very effective — as much as 95% — at preventing recipients from developing Covid-19 itself. However, data haven’t been released on their ability to prevent people from developing asymptomatic infections or transmitting the virus to others. The gold standard in vaccinology is to stop infection as well as disease, providing so-called sterilizing immunity.
At this stage, it’s not yet clear whether Ta’al might even decide to run jointly with Hadash and Balad, which have agreed to run on a joint slate, or whether it would pursue a link-up with the United Arab List.
In recent months, however, he appears to have formed a quiet alliance with the Joint List’s MK Mansour Abbas, to the chagrin of Abbas’s colleagues.
On Thursday during an unprecedented visit to the Arab town of Tirah to encourage vaccination, Netanyahu said he did not rule out placing an Arab lawmaker on his right-wing list.
Not clear if moves are “defensive” because expect US attack, or are signals Iran preparing for operations in the Gulf against the US, official said. #Iran
Wednesday’s vote, which is not final and requires several more readings, was largely seen as a gambit by Benny Gantz, the former head of the opposition who reluctantly joined Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition this year, to assert his authority.
In a televised speech on Tuesday night, Gantz, who serves as defence minister, accused the country’s longest-serving leader of lying and sidelining his demands, in particular, a proposed budget.
Any thought of Biden and his people riding into town on white horses to save the nuclear deal is strictly naïve.
The assassination ramps up Middle East tensions after months of relative calm, and risks making it far harder for Joe Biden to fulfil his pledge to open negotiations with Iran and rejoin the 2015 nuclear accord if Tehran agrees to return to full compliance with the deal. Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu both appear bent on doing their best to scupper the US president-elect’s chances before he settles into the White House.
With only a few weeks left until the incoming administration has a chance to relaunch negotiations with the Islamic Republic, Tehran’s foes — in Washington and elsewhere in the Middle East — are gearing up to do whatever they can to stop such efforts even before they begin.
In this respect, the mission to kill Fakhrizadeh was as predictable as it was foolish.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, with the support of President Trump, seems intent on scorching the earth to make it harder for any return to diplomacy under President-elect Joe Biden.
Israel and the Trump administration apparently fear that a Biden administration would seek a quick return to the nuclear agreement, which could revive Iran’s struggling economy and make it harder to contain its influence in the Middle East. Killing Mr. Fakhrizadeh makes that all the more difficult.
The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist is likely to impede the country’s military ambitions. Its real purpose may have been to prevent the president-elect from resuming diplomacy with Tehran.
If Mossad was indeed behind the assassination, Israel had a closing window of opportunity in which to carry it out with a green light from an American president, and there seems little doubt that Trump, seeking to play a spoiler role in his last weeks in office, would have given approval, if not active assistance. He is reported to have asked for military options in Iran, in the aftermath of his election defeat.
(09.05.2020)
Sometimes federal agents are criticized for „creating“ a crime instead of investigating one. Sting operations are examples of crimes that are a consequence of law enforcement actions. Agents create a fictional crime to trick a suspect into attempting to join that crime, thereby creating the crime.
Similarly, Flynn’s crime of lying to government agents was the consequence of the government agents‘ investigation of Flynn. If there was no crime before Flynn’s interview, then there’s little reason to interview Flynn as part of a criminal investigation, unless the agents were looking to create a crime.
Although the campaign has little success to show in the courts, at least by any traditional measure, the flood of post-election litigation is likely a major contributor to the perception among Trump’s supporters that the vote was tainted by widespread fraud. About half of Republicans believe Trump rightfully won the election, but that it was stolen from him by widespread fraud, and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans said the election was rigged, according to a Reuters poll.
This is a different approach than the campaign has recently taken in court, where they have primarily focused on the validity of ballots and counts without asserting fraud. While Giuliani did not present any direct evidence of a massive fraud scheme, Giuliani asserted that this is the „logical conclusion“ reached as a result of incidents he said took place in several states.
Dominic Cummings arrived home with bottles of alcohol last night after he was kicked out of Number 10 for good – following a dramatic was confrontation with Boris Johnson who showed him texts allegedly proving he briefed against his fiancee, Carrie Symonds.
In a tense 45-minute meeting, the Prime Minister is said to have ordered his most senior adviser to leave having shown incriminating text messages which had been forwarded to his partner. The explosive claims were denied by No10.
Last Thursday, in an interview with Radio Anas, Abbas said he wouldn’t dismiss supporting legislation to freeze Netanyahu’s trial. The choice of Matanyahu Englman as state comptroller was attributed to the “defection” of Ra’am members from the opposition ranks, in addition to Abbas’ support for canceling the vote that approved the establishment of an inquiry committee on the submarine procurements.
Aggressive efforts by both parties to court South Florida’s Latin American diaspora have shaped Miami’s political landscape into a paranoid, anti-communist madhouse as Election Day nears.
(27.10.2020)
The EU has so far secured doses of the potential vaccines being developed by AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson. It has also said it is in talks with …
Let me be clear, I’m not saying that Netanyahu wants people to get sick or die. He wants the pandemic to not disappear. He does not want a return to normal. He wants the emergency period to continue, for chaos to reign, for businesses to open and close like an accordion, and for the Israeli public to cry out to the heavens: Save us, Bibi. Save us like you saved us from the dreaded nuclear threat from Iran. After all, Bibi, the world expert in sowing fear and anxiety, has no equal when it comes to spurring terrified voters to cast their ballots for Likud.
Asked if she had spoken to President Donald Trump about the possibility of a coronavirus stimulus deal, Pelosi said she doesn’t „speak to the President.“ Pressed on why not — given the suffering of people in desperate need of a stimulus deal to keep their business open or pay their bills — Pelosi responded this way: „What makes me amused if it weren’t so sad, is how you all think that you know more about the suffering of the American people than those of us who are elected by them to represent them at that table.“
Uh, OK.
(08.10.2020)
Multiple officials told the Associated Press they had not been informed of any such deadline and military experts said it would be impossible to withdraw all 5,000 US troops in Afghanistan and dismantle the US military headquarters by the end of the year.
They suggested the president’s claim was aimed at shifting the news cycle away from coronavirus coverage and that the Pentagon would not act on the order before the 3 November US election.
(22.09.2020)
“I’d like to make it clear that [Defense Secretary Mark Esper] has not issued orders to reduce military personnel below this 4,000 to 5,000 level in Afghanistan, although we are conducting prudent planning to withdraw to zero service members by May 2021 if conditions warrant, per the U.S.-Taliban agreement,” David Helvey, the official performing the duties of assistant secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on National Security at a hearing.
The police came under criticism for issuing a statement implying that the Crime Minister organization, one of the protests‘ organizers, had called on protesters to arm themselves in order to confront police officers. They were forced to retract the allegation after it became clear it was fabricated.
The maps were drafted in consultation with health experts including former city health commissioner and Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Tom Frieden, Dr. Noam Ross of EcoHealth Alliance, and Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota.
(07.10.2020)
– Recent declassifications by DNI John Ratcliffe: „I thought it was a outrageous, appalling and blatant act of politicization that he released, very selectively, some intelligence that was provided then to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is right now engaged in, I think, a very partisan effort to try to debunk the necessary investigative efforts of the FBI that looked into Russian interference in the 2016 election.“
(30.09.2020)
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified unverified Russian intelligence despite concerns being raised by the CIA and National Security Agency, according to people briefed on the matter.
Career officials in the intelligence agencies were concerned about declassifying the information because it was unverified and they believed it could reveal sources and methods. Ratcliffe overrode those concerns and sent the document to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham on Tuesday, the people sa
Mr Gove said the Internal Market Bill was one of several steps taken „to ensure this country is not held hostage in a negotiation process, but that we honour the vote people made in 2016 and again in 2019 to ensure we are properly independent“.
He added: „No one will be happier than me if we can conclude an agreement but we have an absolute obligation to ensure the country is ready in the event that we don’t.“
Indeed, the governor also announced that the state would take over supervision of enforcement of mask and social-distancing rules in the hot spot clusters, presumably putting the State Police in charge of New York City Police Department officers.
Following their conversation on Saturday, the pair have tasked their chief negotiators with working “intensively” to resolve the remaining differences in the post-Brexit trade talks.
Fishing rights, state aid and governance continue to be vexed issues between the two sides as they look to ratify a new trading relationship before the transition period ends on December 31.
#rightthingtodo
We decided in the Withdrawal Agreement to create a Joint Committee, in which we would thrash out the details of these new arrangements. It is here that things risk coming unstuck. We are now hearing that unless we agree to the EU’s terms, the EU will use an extreme interpretation of the Northern Ireland protocol to impose a full-scale trade border down the Irish sea. We are being told that the EU will not only impose tariffs on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but that they might actually stop the transport of food products from GB to NI.
I have to say that we never seriously believed that the EU would be willing to use a Treaty, negotiated in good faith, to blockade one part of the UK, to cut it off; or that they would actually threaten to destroy the economic and territorial integrity of the UK. This was for the very good reason that any such barrier, any such tariffs or division would be completely contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Good Friday agreement. By actively undermining the Union of our country, such an interpretation would seriously endanger peace and stability in Northern Ireland. This interpretation cannot have been the real intention of those who framed the protocol (it certainly wasn’t ours) – and it is therefore vital that we close that option down.
He wrote: “We are now hearing that, unless we agree to the EU’s terms, the EU will use an extreme interpretation of the Northern Ireland protocol to impose a full-scale trade border down the Irish Sea.
“We are being told that the EU will not only impose tariffs on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but that they might actually stop the transport of food products from GB to NI.
PM defends decision to alter Brexit divorce deal, saying he cannot hand Brussels the ‚power to carve up our country‘
The move could allow EU governments to secure vaccines from companies that are not negotiating with Brussels, such as U.S. firms Merck, Inovio and Novavax. They are all in talks with the WHO scheme, dubbed COVAX, but have so far not been reported to be involved in negotiations with the EU Commission.
If, after all, the bill is approved, the next exit point for an election under conditions convenient for Netanyahu will be pushed back to late December. Taking that exit would mean an election in April, six months before Netanyahu is to pass the reins of power to Benny Gantz.
(August 11, 2014)
Rev. Dr. William Barber II delivers a down right, electrifying, knockout and empowering speech to the delegates of the 2014 United Steelworkers Constitutional Convention.
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II speaking at the United Steelworkers union convention, August 13, 2014.
(29.07.2020)
In May, Biden tapped Ocasio-Cortez to lead his campaign’s Climate Task Force, alongside climate crusader and former secretary of state John Kerry.
Politico reported Pelosi told White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that Birx was the „worst“ and that they were in „horrible hands“ with her.
Asked on ABC’s „This Week“ whether the account was true and if she has confidence in Birx, Pelosi said, „I think the President is spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee, so I don’t have confidence there, no.“
“Deborah Birx is the worst. Wow, what horrible hands you’re in,” Pelosi said at the meeting, according to Politico.
A New York Times article in July on the Trump administration’s coronavirus response portrayed Birx as overly optimistic about the course of the pandemic. While voicing “tremendous respect” for Pelosi, Birx on Sunday criticized the newspaper’s reporting.
Piñera replaced his interior chief and other five ministers, ensuring key positions for political allies.
„Ammunition and destructive devices recovered by Portland Police in the area of this incident at around the same time appear to be unrelated,“ Portland police said. Police did not say whether the shooting was related to the protests.
It remained unclear early Monday if the shooting was connected to the protest, and police said the magazines and firebomb „appear to be unrelated“ to the shooting.
The president portrayed the nation’s cities as out of control. “Look at what’s going on — all run by Democrats, all run by very liberal Democrats. All run, really, by radical left,” Mr. Trump said. He added: “If Biden got in, that would be true for the country. The whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.”
Democrats said the president was the one out of control.
One of their political weapons is cancel culture, driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and to our values and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.
This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty must be stopped and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children from this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life. In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us.
„They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive,“ he said. „But no, the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country and all of its values, history and culture to be taken from them.“
In response, the crowd erupted in cheers of „USA! USA!“ and „Four more years!“
China’s foreign ministry said on Friday the two countries were holding talks to reduce tensions.
Spokesman Zhao Lijian, responding to a question about Modi’s visit to the border region, said both sides were in communications through diplomatic and military channels to ease the situation.
Netanyahu’s strategy is transparent. He doesn’t have a scrap of evidence that would support his claims about Mendelblit. If he did, he wouldn’t need the campaign of mudslinging and lies that he’s conducting.
All Netanyahu wants is to cast doubt on Mendelblit’s motives, strengthen the doubt and cultivate it, until it casts a pall on the integrity of the legal proceedings against him.
The new, poor numbers for the president come as his chief rival for the presidency, former Vice President Joe Biden, opens up as much as a double-digit lead in some swing states in recent polling, with Election Day only four months away.
The poll found sinking voter optimism as well, with only a quarter of voters responding that the country is headed in the right direction, while 75 percent said things had “pretty seriously” gotten off on the wrong track — a record high for the Trump presidency.
In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America’s principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials — including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff — that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.
(29.06.2020)
Why it matters: Israeli officials say Netanyahu thinks President Trump is politically vulnerable four months before the U.S. election and that he could lose to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. He thinks Trump needs the evangelical base to go to vote in order to have a chance at winning.
A senior Palestinian official in Ramallah, unnamed in the report, said that the message was sent through Jordan following the reported meeting between Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and King Abdullah II.
Under a California law that went into effect on January 1, 2020, all law enforcement training materials must be “conspicuously” published on the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) website.
Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey has been sacked from the shadow cabinet after she tweeted a link to an interview with actress Maxine Peake.
The shadow education secretary was forced out of her job by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who said the interview contained an ‚antisemitic conspiracy theory‘.
(Nov. 22, 2004)
You have statistics in your book. … Talk to me about the 2 percent statistic and what that means.
Naturally speaking, there’s 2 percent who after 60 days of continuous day-and-night combat are not driven insane. And this 2 percent keeps bubbling up. Two percent of all fighter pilots in World War II killed more than the rest put together, something along those lines. This 2 percent keeps bubbling up.
And it’s really not a percent. It’s not a yes or no. It’s a continuum. It’s the old bell-shaped curve. [At] one end of the bell-shaped curve there’s people, at the tail of it, with great capacity for violence. [At] the other end there’s people over here with no capacity for violence. And there’s most of the people right in between. But you can choose to go one way or another. Israel is a nation that has shifted their bell-shaped curve. Israel is a nation who’s chosen a warrior path.
So what’s happening in the psychology of those 2 percent?
Well, those 2 percent are people with a capacity for aggression. And then they divide into two parts. Those who have the capacity for aggression and an absence of empathy, we call those psychopaths, sociopaths, aggressive sociopaths. Those who have a capacity for aggression and empathy for their fellow citizens, we call those warriors, heroes, cops, soldiers, Marines, spec ops.
(February 2017)
Last summer, after a black man named Philando Castile was shot and killed during a traffic stop outside Minneapolis, it was revealed that two years earlier the officer, Jeronimo Yanez, had attended “The Bulletproof Warrior,” a two-day training taught by Grossman and his colleague Jim Glennon.
(December 2, 2011)
Back in New York, the NYPD set up a secret “Demographics Unit” designed to spy on and monitor Muslim communities around the city. The unit was developed with input and intensive involvement by the CIA, which still refuses to name the former Middle East station chief it has posted in the senior ranks of the NYPD’s intelligence division. Since 2002, the NYPD has dispatched undercover agents known as “rakers” and “mosque crawlers” into Pakistani-American bookstores and restaurants to gauge community anger over US drone strikes inside Pakistan, and into Palestinian hookah bars and mosques to search out signs of terror recruitment and clandestine funding. “If a raker noticed a customer looking at radical literature, he might chat up the store owner and see what he could learn,” the Associated Press reported. “The bookstore, or even the customer, might get further scrutiny.”
The Israeli imprimatur on the NYPD’s Demographics Unit is unmistakable. As a former police official told the Associated Press, the Demographics Unit has attempted to “map the city’s human terrain” through a program “modeled in part on how Israeli authorities operate in the West Bank.”
(September 15 2017)
In the aftermath of 9/11, Israel seized on its decades-long experience as an occupying force to brand itself as a world leader in counterterrorism. U.S. law enforcement agencies took the Jewish state up on its expertise by participating in exchange programs sponsored by an array of pro-Israel groups, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Anti-Defamation League. Over the past decade and a half, scores of top federal, state, and local police officers from dozens of departments from across the U.S. have gone to Israel to learn about its terrorism-focused policing.
Yet Israel’s policing prowess is marred by its primary purpose: occupation.
(August 25, 2016)
Baltimore law enforcement officials, along with hundreds of others from Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington state as well as the DC Capitol police have all traveled to Israel for training. Thousands of others have received training from Israeli officials here in the U.S.
Many of these trips are taxpayer funded while others are privately funded. Since 2002, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs have paid for police chiefs, assistant chiefs and captains to train in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
(03.06.2020)
Neta Golan, co-founder of International Solidarity Movement (ISM), said: “When I saw the picture of killer cop Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd by leaning in on his neck with his knee as he cried for help and other cops watched, I remembered noticing when many Israeli soldiers began using this technique of leaning in on our chest and necks when we were protesting in the West Bank sometime in 2006.
“They started twisting and breaking fingers in a particular way around the same time. It was clear they had undergone training for this. They continue to use these tactics—two of my friends have had their necks broken but luckily survived—and it is clear that they [Israel] share these methods when they train police forces abroad in ‘crowd control’ in the U.S. and other countries including Sudan and Brazil.”
(June 26, 2012)
About 100 Minnesota law enforcement officers attended a counter-terrorism training conference in Minneapolis Monday.
The conference was put on by the Israeli consulate in Chicago, the FBI and Minnetonka police.
Deputy Consul Shahar Arieli said Israeli law enforcement officers shared techniques to prevent terrorist acts, such as suicide bombings.
Long-Bailey had tweeted an Independent article written about British actress and anti-capitalist activist Maxine Peake writing „Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond.“
In the story, Peake alleges that „the tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
(today)
(02.06.2020)
Questions came over the decision to largely seal off downtown, effectively forcing some of the protest action into outlying neighborhoods, and over what appeared at times to be an outnumbered police department’s choice to stand back as looting began.
Tribune reporters observed officers who had been deployed to hot spots to contain a situation keep their posts without engaging looters.
Congressman Bobby Rush got word that his office in Chicago had been burglarized. But when he looked at the surveillance tape, he saw a group of up to 13 police officers, helping themselves to coffee, making popcorn, even napping in his office while nearby stores were being damaged and robbed amid protests. Aired on 6/11/2020.
Several Chicago police officers were captured on video relaxing inside the recently-burglarized office of Congressman Bobby Rush while nearby businesses were looted, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.
Surveillance video taken inside the longtime congressman’s South Side campaign office in the early hours of June 1 shows a group of officers sitting, making popcorn and in one case napping, “while small businesses on the South Side were looted and burned,” Lightfoot said.
The mayor on Sunday declined to say precisely how much funding he planned to divert to social services from the New York Police Department, which has an annual budget of $6 billion, representing more than 6 percent of Mr. de Blasio’s proposed $90 billion budget.
(04.06.2020)
(04.06.2020)
Over 400 current and former employees in the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio have signed an open letter denouncing the mayor’s treatment of peaceful protesters and his refusal to reign in the NYPD.
The letter includes a scathing evaluation of de Blasio’s performance on criminal justice reform, despite it being one of the main commitments that drew many of these staffers to work for the administration, particularly after he made ending the misuse of stop and frisk a central theme in his 2013 mayoral campaign.
The maneuver was a law enforcement tactic called kettling. The police encircle protesters so that they have no way to exit from a park, city block or other public space, and then charge in and make arrests.
For the next 20 minutes in Downtown Brooklyn, officers swinging batons turned a demonstration that had been largely peaceful into a scene of chaos.
The kettling operations carried out by the police department after curfew have become among the most unsettling symbols of its use of force against peaceful protests, and have touched off a fierce backlash against Mayor Bill de Blasio and the police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea.
The NYPD is under fire for a series of actions unfolding each day as protesters continue to defy the nightly curfew.
Protests over the death of Floyd, who was killed while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, have led to unrest that Los Angeles has not seen since the 1992 riots sparked by the acquittal of four LAPD officers in the beating Rodney King. While businesses were looted and buildings were damaged and burned in downtown, Van Nuys and the Fairfax District, activists said protests have been largely peaceful and police have focused most of their attention on arresting demonstrators instead of looters.
(02.06.2020)
(02.06.2020)
But one way in which Washington is directly implicated in police brutality is its contribution to the militarization of local police departments through the Pentagon’s 1033 Program and the so-called „war on terror“ more broadly. Often in concert with the war on drugs, the fight against terrorism has been used to blur the lines between the military and the police, arming ostensible peace officers with mindsets, tactics, and weapons of war.
1:40 p.m. As tens of thousands of peaceful marchers flooded New York City streets Monday evening, just before 7 p.m, NYPD officers were overheard chattering on the citywide police scanner threatening physical violence against protesters.
At around 6:20 p.m., marchers headed to the 77th Precinct in Brooklyn and had surrounded it. One person called in to describe the scene.
“There’s a group headed the 77th Precinct there’s a group, may be heading towards there please.”
Another voice responds: “Shoot those motherfuckers.”
Gov. Cuomo said Tuesday the NYPD and Mayor de Blasio must “do a better job” at curbing looting and violence erupting amid civil unrest over police brutality against African-Americans.
“The police in New York City were not effective at doing their job last night. Period,” the governor said during a press briefing in Albany. “They have to do a better job.“
„The County is re-evaluating the agreements that allowed our officers to be put in a compromising position that endangered their health and safety, and that of the people around them, for a purpose not worthy of our mutual aid obligations,” the statement reads.
Questions came over the decision to largely seal off downtown, effectively forcing some of the protest action into outlying neighborhoods, and over what appeared at times to be an outnumbered police department’s choice to stand back as looting began.
Tribune reporters observed officers who had been deployed to hot spots to contain a situation keep their posts without engaging looters.
Videos showed officers using batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters and bystanders.
Aaron Landy watched for hours on Saturday night as people on foot and then in cars moved up and down Melrose Avenue looting stores and setting them on fire, doing wheelies in the street and tagging walls with graffiti.
All the while, not a single police cruiser rolled by, Landy said, even though officers were staged in huge numbers not far away, squaring off with protesters.
Landy’s longtime Fairfax neighborhood, it seemed to him, had been completely abandoned to lawlessness.
This is the photo I took right before and then during getting hit
I am OK, home, icing my eye. It’s swollen. It hit my nose first which helped
I wasn’t trying to put myself at risk. I wanted to document what was happening to the young man who seemed critically injured, and the people who were trying to keep him alive.
Then I got hit.
People rushed to help me and bandage my eye and face. I started to realize I wasn’t seriously injured, and they helped me up when a cloud of tear gas came our way and everyone ran.
I was leaning against a building trying to gather myself when folks starting smashing windows.
Important context: That seemed to happen as the situation escalated, the crowd’s anger rose as rubber bullets + canisters hit. It didn’t happen randomly or in isolation.
Graham’s timeline, which was first reported by The Hill last week, would have him releasing a report on the committee’s probe only weeks before the November election, where Trump is set to face off against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
In addition to the Senate panel examining Crossfire Hurricane, the name for the FBI investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling and the Trump campaign, Graham has said that his investigation will also look at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA court.
“There is no precedent that anybody can find for somebody who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free,” Mr. Obama said on a call with thousands of supporters who worked in his administration or campaigns.
Sometimes federal agents are criticized for „creating“ a crime instead of investigating one. Sting operations are examples of crimes that are a consequence of law enforcement actions. Agents create a fictional crime to trick a suspect into attempting to join that crime, thereby creating the crime.
Similarly, Flynn’s crime of lying to government agents was the consequence of the government agents‘ investigation of Flynn. If there was no crime before Flynn’s interview, then there’s little reason to interview Flynn as part of a criminal investigation, unless the agents were looking to create a crime.
European Union leaders are expected to clash over the size and scope of a coronavirus recovery fund as they stand on the precipice of an economic slump unparalleled since the 1930’s Great Depression.
The strikes come one day after the US assessed an Iranian-backed group was responsible for a rocket attack on a base where coalition forces are located, killing two American service members and one British service member. Fox News was first to report on the strike.
abcn.ws/3cuTJqs #SuperTuesday
Bernie Sanders has spent his entire campaign saying this day would come.
Now, it’s here.
There’s a whiff of desperation to this move. It’s not hard to see why: If Sanders, who leads in the delegate count, performs well in delegate-rich states such as Texas and California, he might be unstoppable on his way to winning the nomination at the convention this summer.
That’s an unacceptable outcome to a powerful bloc of the Democratic Party. It’s why Buttigieg and Klobuchar have moved so quickly to endorse Biden. It’s why Sanders opponents started Super PAC called the Big Tent Project to run advertisements criticizing Sanders as a radical who would lose to Trump.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar will end her presidential bid on Monday and endorse Joe Biden, a campaign aide tells CNN.
The Klobuchar campaign confirmed that the senator is flying to Dallas to join the former vice president at his rally, where she will suspend her campaign and give her endorsement on the eve of Super Tuesday.
Activists are upset with the case of a black teen sentenced to life in prison while Klobuchar was the county’s prosecutor.
Joe Biden is moving closer to consolidating the support of moderate Democratic voters and donors after a resounding victory in South Carolina and Pete Buttigieg’s departure from the party’s presidential race.
Let’s start with the simple fact that Biden has been hovering around the 15% threshold for delegates in a number of states, including the huge Super Tuesday delegate prize of California. Biden was at 13% in a CNN/SSRS poll conducted there. Buttigieg was at 7%. If Biden gets two points of that 7%, it could make all the difference in the world to him. That alone could net Biden dozens or more of delegates.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders holds substantial leads in the two largest states to vote in this week’s Super Tuesday lineup of primaries, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS in California and Texas.
Trump predicted in a tweet that the majority of Buttigieg’s votes in Super Tuesday states would go to Biden, thereby hamstringing Sanders’s chances of obtaining the Democratic nomination.
„Pete Buttigieg is OUT,“ Trump wrote. „All of his SuperTuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play – NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!“
Konashenkov denounced what he said was becoming a “typical practice” of Israel’s of using civilian aircraft as a “shield” against Syrian air defenses, apparently referring to a case in 2018, when the Syrian military shot down a Russian spy plane while responding to an Israeli strike over Syrian airspace.
Russia later declared that Israel was responsible for that incident, in which 15 crew members were killed, saying the Israeli Air Force jets used the Russian plane as cover.
(21.01.2020)
Four Democratic senators, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, are on Capitol Hill for Trump’s trial as the remaining candidates in Iowa campaign ahead of the caucuses.
With their candidates stuck in Washington for the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, campaign staffers, organizers and surrogates for Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are under pressure to help make closing arguments before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3.
The trial kicked off this week and will keep senators in session for six days a week, although it’s set to end early afternoon on Saturday, allowing the 2020 Senate candidates to travel to Iowa for the weekend.
„We do not have a communique text. Let us hold the conference first and then examine the results, see what steps we can take and then discuss them. Let us see what these will be. „
The draft also recognizes Tripoli-based state oil company NOC as the sole legitimate entity allowed to sell Libyan oil, according to the draft, which will be discussed at the summit.