Brief News International

More than +100 dead in clashes as U.S. opens Jerusalem Embassy

May 14 (UPI) — on Monday. 14th May, Ceremonies marking the embassy’s move from the official capital in Tel Aviv were intended to be festive and celebratory, but authorities are preparing for demonstrations that could turn into fighting.

An interim embassy began operating at the existing U.S. consulate building Monday. The doors opened at 4 p.m., during a 90-minute ceremony led by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, both senior White House advisers, represented the United States at the ceremony. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan also attended. Ivanka Trump formally opened the embassy with a short statement. Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among the speakers at the ceremony.

“A great day for Israel!” Trump tweeted.

Protests at the Gaza-Israel border  coincided with Nakba Day, the Palestinians’ “day of catastrophe” — a reference to Israel’s 1948 founding and Palestinians’ expulsion from their homes in Israel.

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Tens of thousands enter al-Aqsa Mosque for Ramadan’s first Friday

by Linah Alsaafin

Occupied East Jerusalem – More than 100,000 Palestinians, many of them from the occupied West Bank, have made their way to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem for the first Friday of Ramadan. On most days, Qalandiya checkpoint, the main gateway in the West Bank to Jerusalem and beyond, resembles a land border, complete with terminals, turnstiles and security detectors.

This time, Palestinian men over 40 and women of all ages were allowed to pass, with most streaming past concrete barriers without being stopped, as Israeli soldiers stood close by.  Some mothers had brought their younger teenage sons with them, hoping that they would be overlooked and not subject to stringent searching.

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An Israeli sniper shot and killed Palestinian medical volunteer ‘Razan al-Najjar’  in Gaza

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip | By Reuters | June 1, 2018

That protest was the 10th Friday demonstration held by Palestinians since March 30 near the fence with Israel dubbed the Great March of Return. Sabreen’s daughter, 21-year-old Razan, had been in all of them, volunteering as a paramedic to help those shot by Israeli snipers.            “In a blink of an eye she was out of door. I ran to the balcony to watch her outside but she had already made her way to the end of the street,” Sabreen said, surrounded by grieving relatives, friends and female patients her daughter had once treated.

At the protest site in Khuza’a, witnesses said that Razan approached the fence on Friday in her medic’s vest and with both of her arms raised to show the Israeli soldiers a 100 yards away that she posed no threat. Her intention was to evacuate a wounded protester lying on the other side of the fence, after he had managed to cut a hole through it.  Instead, Razan was shot in her chest with live ammunition, the single bullet escaping through a hole in the back of her vest.

She became the 119th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces since the popular protests began calling for the Palestinians’ right of return to the homes from which they were expelled from in 1948. More than 13,000 others have been wounded

Series of blasts hit Kabul as suicide bombers and gunmen attack Afghanistan’s capital

9 MAY 2018| A string of blasts tore through Afghanistan’s capital morning in the latest of a series of relentless attacks which have killed scores in recent weeks. Officials said at least six were wounded. Islamic State claimed responsibility, the group’s Amaq news agency reported.

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50 casualties from blast at mosque in east Afghanistan

KABUL (7 May 2018) An explosion at a mosque used as a voter centre in the eastern Afghan province of Khost. Local officials said, in the latest attack on preparations for long-delayed parliamentary elections. Basir Bina, the spokesman for the provincial police, said people were gathered after afternoon prayers in the mosque, which was also being used as a voter registration centre for parliamentary elections due in October.

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Taliban kill 30 police in western Afghan province

11-5-2018 | BY AGENCIES | HERAT: Farid Bakhtawar, head of the Farah provincial council, said fighters had stormed a police base overnight in Balabuluk, a district that has been under heavy pressure for months. In a separate attack in Farah city, Taliban fighters killed 11 police and seized a large quantity of weapons and equipment, he said.

The latest violence underlines the extent of the pressure faced by the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, already heavily criticized for a spate of suicide bombings in the capital, Kabul.

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20 killed as Taliban Storms city in western Afghanistan

14 May 2018: Taliban fighters attacked a police headquarters in the western Farah province, killing at least 20 members of the security forces. According to a recent BBC study, the Taliban are active in 70 percent of districts, fully controlling four percent of the country and demonstrating an open physical presence in another 66 percent. Last year, the US pledged to increase its support to struggling Afghan forces, announcing plans for thousands of additional advisers and increasing air raids in a bid to force the Taliban to enter peace negotiations.

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Afghan cricket stadium attack leaves 8 dead, 45 wounded

JALALABAD: (19-5-2018 ) Eight people were killed and 45 wounded in a series of explosions targeting a cricket match in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, officials said Saturday, the first attack since the holy month of Ramazan began. The blasts exploded among spectators crowded into the stadium at around 11pm  on Friday evening as they watched the local “Ramadan Cup”, the provincial governor´s office said.

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Trump refuses to recertify Iran nuclear deal

By TRACY WILKINSON | Los Angeles Times

Trump declared that the agreement the Obama administration and five other world powers reached with Iran in 2015 to suspend its nuclear program is not sufficiently strong to benefit “U.S. national security interests.” Iran should no longer be seen as in compliance with the accord, Trump said. Trump called on Congress to consider reimposing sanctions if Iran crosses certain lines, such as firing ballistic missiles or financing terrorism. He also moved to impose new sanctions by executive action, including blacklisting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite military unit that is heavily involved in much of the country’s business and trade.

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UK, France and Germany say remain

 committed to nuclear accord

May 9, 2018 : Moments after Trump said he would abandon the pact, resisting overtures from European nations who had urged him to preserve America’s commitment, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron said the decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal was a matter of “regret and concern”.  However they said they remained committed to the accord.

They said: “It is with regret and concern that we, the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom take note of President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States of America from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Together, we emphasise our continuing commitment to the JCPOA. This agreement remains important for our shared security.

“We recall that the JCPOA was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in resolution 2231. This resolution remains the binding international legal framework for the resolution of the dispute about the Iranian nuclear programme.

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China Launches Its First Domestically Made Aircraft Carrier

By Steven Lee Myers : May 13, 2018

TAIPEI, Taiwan  China launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier to begin sea trials on Sunday, reaching another milestone in the expansion of the country’s navy. The aircraft carrier, as yet unnamed, left its berth at a shipyard in the northeastern port of Dalian after a blow of its horn and a display of fireworks, according to reports in state news media.

The Chinese Navy  officially the People’s Liberation Army Navy  already has one operational carrier, the Liaoning, which it bought unfinished from Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

That ship joined the Chinese fleet in 2012 and began its first operations four years later, putting China in the small group of seafaring powers that maintain aircraft carriers, led by the United States, which has 10 Nimitz-class carriers alone.

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China lands nuclear strike-capable bombers on South China Sea islands

Several bombers of various types  including the long-range, nuclear strike-capable H-6K  carried out landing and take off drills at an unidentified island airfield after carrying out simulated strike training on targets at sea, the Chinese airforce said.

“A division of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) recently organised multiple bombers such as the H-6K to conduct take-off and landing training on islands and reefs in the South China Sea in order to improve our ability to ‘reach all territory, conduct strikes at any time and strike in all directions’,” it said.

The statement said the pilot of the H-6K bomber conducted assault training on a designated sea target and then carried out take-offs and landings at an airport in the area, describing the exercise as preparation for “the west Pacific and the battle for the South China Sea”.

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Russia expands supersonic bomber patrols to Arctic & beyond  strategic aviation chief

Russian Supersonic Tu-160 Bombers Head to Arctic Borders — 500 miles from Alaska

RT News | Russian strategic nuclear forces are expanding their global reach and paying special attention to patrolling the Arctic with supersonic bombers, according to the long-range strategic air force commander Sergey Kobylash.

 “This year, we plan to fly Tu-160s to Anadyr [Russia’s easternmost Arctic town]. The Arctic is of strategic importance to us and we have been exploring new airfields and other ways of beefing up security on the maritime border,” Major-General Kobylash told the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

The air force commander also recalled how Tu-22M3 bombers carried out landings in Anadyr in Russia’s Far East for the first time last year, as well as in Vorkuta, situated just north of the Arctic Circle. However, strategic nuclear forces patrols also conquered new horizons over warm waters across the globe, the major general noted.

Russia has four permanent military compounds in the region at present, including the northernmost military installation, dubbed Arctic Trifoil. The station is the world’s only permanent structure built at 80 degrees latitude north of the equator.

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Russian pilot found alive 30 years after shot down in Afghanistan

MOSCOW (AFP) – ‘RIA Novosti’  the man was shot down in 1987 and is likely now to be over 60, the deputy head of veteran s organisation Battle Brotherhood, Vyacheslav Kalinin, told the news agency, adding that he now wants to come home. RIA Novosti reported that during the course of the war between 1979 and 1989, 125 Soviet planes were shot down in Afghanistan.

When Soviet troops pulled out in 1989, around 300 soldiers were listed as missing. Since then some 30 have been found and most returned to their home countries.

Kommersant business daily reported that only one Soviet pilot was shot down in 1987, naming him as Sergei Pantelyuk from the southern Russian Rostov region, who went missing along with his plane after taking off from Bagram airfield, now a US air base, north of Kabul.

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Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s bloc wins Iraq election

BAGHDAD: By Reuters:May 19, 2018| A political bloc led by populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a long-time adversary of the United States who also opposes Iranian influence in Iraq, has won the country’s parliamentary election, the electoral commission said. Sadr himself cannot become prime minister as he did not run in the election, though his bloc’s victory puts him in a position to have a strong say in negotiations.

His Sairoon electoral list captured 54 parliamentary seats. The Al-Fatih bloc led by Hadi al-Amiri, who has close ties with Iran and heads an umbrella group of paramilitaries that played a key role in defeating Islamic State, came in second with 47 seats. The Victory Alliance, headed by incumbent Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, took third place with 42.

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Indonesia church attacks | In a multiple suicide bombings 13 dead, 41 hurt

By Associated Press | 13-5-2018 |

 SURABAYA: Suicide bombers who carried out deadly attacks on three churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city on Sunday were a family who had been in Syria and included two young children, police said, as the world’s most populous Muslim nation recoiled in horror at one of the worst attacks on its Christian minority.

The bombings were the worst to target churches in Indonesia since a series of attacks on Christmas Eve in 2000 killed 15 people and wounded nearly 100. Religious minorities in Indonesia, especially Christians, have been repeatedly targeted by militants. National police chief Tito Karnavian said that the family had returned to Indonesia from Syria, where until recently the Islamic State group controlled significant territory.

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More Than 100 Die as Aging Cuban Airliner Crashes

May 18, 2018 | A Cuban state airliner crashed and burned moments after takeoff from Havana on Friday, killing nearly all 114 people aboard the nearly 40-year-old plane. It was one of the worst airline crashes in Cuba, which has been struggling to operate with a decrepit fleet of planes that it has blamed partly on the longstanding economic embargo imposed by the United States.

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America’s Word Is Worthless :  “US Foreign Policy In Hands Of Israel”

By Paul Craig Roberts

May 09, 2018 “Information Clearing House” – We can now dismiss all hope that Trump’s campaign promises to pull out of Syria, normalize relations with Russia and stop the offshoring of American jobs will ever become US policies. By dishonoring the US government’s word and pulling out of the Iran nuclear non-proliferation agreement, an agreement signed by the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Iran, President Trump has revealed that his regime is totally in the hands of the Zionist warmongers.

 It was already evident, but America’s renewal alone in the world of the fabricated conflict with Iran is proof that US foreign policy is in the hands of Israel. All you have to do is to watch Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN, groveling at the feet of AIPEC, to watch US Secretary of State Pompeo groveling at the feet of Netanyahu, to see the glee all over the face of neoconservative Israeli agent John Bolton, the National Security Adviser to the President of the United States, from his realization that his conflict agenda with Iran has prevailed. Indeed the entire Trump regime are such dedicated grovelers at Israel’s feet that the Trump regime comes across as a barbaric tribe groveling before the King of Kings.

Washington’s major European vassals said that they will stick to the agreement. We will see if they can withstand the pressures and the sums of money that will be thrown at them to change their minds.

This means a new test for Russia. Can the Russian government stand the destabilization of Iran any more than it can the destabilization of Syria? Can Russia again muster the determination to protect her southern flank?

One wonders if Trump’s ill-considered decision has finally taught Putin, Lavrov and the Atlanticist Integrationists who have for so long resisted reality that the agreements that they so desperately want to make with Washington are completely worthless before they even make them.

Will Russia finally wake up and stop inviting more dangerous situations by her extraordinary indecisiveness? If Putin doesn’t put his foot down, he is going to get us all killed.

‘Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal’

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U.S. House Makes Clear That There is No Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iran May 24, 2018 |  Press Release

A bipartisan amendment introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and cosponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Walter Jones (R-NC) passed the U.S. House as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019

WASHINGTON On 22 May Tuesday night, the House unanimously passed an amendment making clear Congress’s position that no law exists which gives the President power to launch a military strike against Iran. Today, that amendment passed the U.S. House as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019.

“The unanimous passage of this bipartisan amendment is a strong and timely counter to the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Iran deal and its increasingly hostile rhetoric,” Rep. Ellison said. “This amendment sends a powerful message that the American people and Members of Congress do not want a war with Iran. Today, Congress acted to reclaim its authority over the use of military force.”

“I am pleased with the inclusion of this amendment, which clarifies that the President does not have the authority to go to war with Iran,” said Congresswoman Lee. “Just weeks after President Trump shamefully pulled out of the Iran Deal, it is more important than ever to ensure diplomacy with Iran and in the region. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this important amendment and will do everything in my power to ensure we do not go to war with Iran.”

“The War Powers Act and Constitution is clear that our country’s military action must first always be authorized by Congress. A war with Iran would be unconstitutional and costly. The unanimous passage of Rep. Ellison’s amendment sends a strong message to Secretary Pompeo, National Security Advisor Bolton, and the Trump administration that Congress has the power to decide issues of war and peace,” Said Rep. Khanna.

“This amendment’s historic passage affirms the fact that the American people do not want to go to war with Iran. Following the President’s misguided withdrawal from the JCPOA, the House of Representatives sent a clear message by passing this amendment unanimously: unauthorized war with Iran is not an option. The President must listen to the American people and return to diplomacy as the primary solution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” said Rep. Schakowsky.

“Congress is sending a clear message that President Trump does not have the authority to go to war with Iran,” Rep. McGovern said. “With President Trump’s reckless violation of the Iran Deal and failure to get Congressional approval for military strikes on Syria, there’s never been a more important time for Congress to reassert its authority. It’s long past time to end the White House’s blank check on war and the passage of this amendment is a strong start.”

Asdadasd

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Dude, where’s my plutonium? Idaho loses weapons-grade sample

By : Billy Suratt  | Idaho State University is facing a $8,500 fine from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for losing a gram of radioactive, weapons-grade plutonium. While the amount is too small to make a nuclear bomb, it could be used to make a radioactive dirty bomb, according to federal officials who recommended the fine.

“The NRC has very rigorous controls for the use and storage of radioactive materials as evidenced by this enforcement action,” said agency spokesman Victor Dricks, according to AP.

It turns out the university has been unable to account for the plutonium since they were asked to dispose of the chemical element in 2014.

 The inexplicable loss was down to poor paperwork, said vice-president for research at the university, Dr Cornelis Van der Schyf. “Unfortunately, because there was a lack of sufficient historical records to demonstrate the disposal pathway employed in 2003, the source in question had to be listed as missing,” he said.

“The radioactive source in question poses no direct health issue or risk to public safety.”

The plutonium is about the size of a US quarter coin and was one of 14 one-gram pieces loaned to the university by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The sample was scheduled to be sent back to the INL in 2003, when it was discovered during a routine leak test that the plutonium had experienced a loss-of-integrity and was removed from active use.

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