World Monthly Headline News May 2021
By Hadas Gold and Andrew Carey, CNNJerusalem (CNN) Benjamin Netanyahu's run as the longest-serving Israeli prime minister may be coming to an end. Naftali Bennett, leader of the small right-wing party Yamina, announced Sunday evening he is working toward a coalition agreement with Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist party Yesh Atid, to join a new government. It's a seismic event in Israeli politics, and if the coalition is sworn in, it would bring an end to Netanyahu's 12 years as prime minister. In a prime-time address Sunday, Bennett told Israelis he is joining the new government to prevent a fifth round of elections and "rescue the country from spin." more...
Julia Buckley, CNN(CNN) — In the week since Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius was forcibly diverted to Minsk, travel in Europe already looks very different. Three days after the incident -- in which Belarusian fighter jets escorted the airplane to land in the capital citing security concerns, before arresting opposition activist Roman Protasevich and his Russian companion Sofia Sapega -- European airlines were formally stopped from flying over Belarusian airspace. The directive, issued Wednesday by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) under the form of a Safety Information Bulletin (SIB), called on all airlines "with their principle place of business in one of the EASA member states" to avoid Belarusian airspace. They advised that all other airlines should do the same, wherever they are based. more...
Rebecca FalconerAn Indigenous Canadian group announced plans Saturday to identify the remains of 215 children, some as young as three, found buried at the site of a former residential school, per CBC News. The big picture: The discovery of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation children's remains has renewed calls for the Roman Catholic Church to apologize for its role in Canada's policy of the 19th and 20th centuries that saw Indigenous children removed from families to attend state-funded residential schools. more...
Associated PressKAMLOOPS, British Colombia — A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, has been found on the site of what was once Canada's largest Indigenous residential school. The school is one of the institutions that held Indigenous children taken from families across the nation. Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk'emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in a news release that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar. more...
By Sophie LewisSkywatchers around the world were treated to the most spectacular full moon of the year in the early morning hours on Wednesday. May 26 marked not just a supermoon, but also a lunar eclipse, or so-called "blood moon." According to NASA, a blood moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse, when the Earth is positioned directly between the moon and the sun. Earth's atmosphere filters the sunlight, scattering blue light but allowing red light to pass through. more...
By Tara John, Nadine Schmidt, Tim Lister and Chris Liakos, CNN(CNN) At least two European airlines have been refused permission to fly to Moscow by Russian authorities after the carriers requested to fly an alternative route bypassing Belarusian airspace.Russia's move, underlining Moscow's support for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's regime, comes as the European Union mulls fresh sanctions against Belarus following what leaders have described as the state-sanctioned hijacking of a passenger flight over Belarus last Sunday.Austrian Airlines canceled a scheduled flight from Vienna to Moscow on Thursday, saying in a statement: "A change in flight routes must be approved by the authorities. The Russian authorities did not give us this permit. As a result, Austrian Airlines had to cancel today's flight from Vienna to Moscow." more...
By Nadine Schmidt, George Engels, Stephanie Busari and David McKenzie, CNN(CNN) More than 100 years after the crimes committed by the German colonial power in what is now Namibia, Germany has formally recognized the atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups as genocide. Germany will support Namibia and the descendants of the victims with €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) for reconstruction and development and ask for forgiveness for the "crimes of German colonial rule," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement on Friday. "Our goal was and is to find a common path to genuine reconciliation in memory of the victims. This includes naming the events of the German colonial period in what is now Namibia, and in particular the atrocities in the period from 1904 to 1908, without sparing or glossing over them. We will now also officially call these events what they were from today's perspective: a genocide," Maas said. more...
Jacob KnutsonRussia Thursday blocked at least two European planes from landing in Moscow because they planned to avoid Belarusian airspace after Belarus diverted a Lithuania-bound flight to detain a government dissident on Monday, U.S. News reports.Why it matters: The move comes after the EU told European airlines not to fly over Belarus, and appears to seek to undermine the bloc's response to the country's strongman leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. more...
British detectives tracked down Carl Stewart after identifying his fingerprints in a photo of Stilton cheese he posted on an encrypted messaging service.Pan PylasONDON (AP) — A drug dealer in the English city of Liverpool thought he was the big cheese — until police got all the evidence they needed to arrest him from a picture he shared of himself holding a small block of creamy Stilton. Carl Stewart, 39, was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court last week after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply heroin, MDMA and ketamine and transferring criminal property. more...
In 2011, Chinese spies stole the crown jewels of cybersecurity—stripping protections from firms and government agencies worldwide. Here’s how it happened.Andy GreenbergAmid all the sleepless hours that Todd Leetham spent hunting ghosts inside his company’s network in early 2011, the experience that sticks with him most vividly all these years later is the moment he caught up with them. Or almost did. It was a spring evening, he says, three days—maybe four, time had become a blur—after he had first begun tracking the hackers who were rummaging through the computer systems of RSA, the corporate security giant where he worked. Leetham—a bald, bearded, and curmudgeonly analyst one coworker described to me as a “carbon-based hacker-finding machine”—had been glued to his laptop along with the rest of the company’s incident response team, assembled around the company’s glass-encased operations center in a nonstop, 24-hours-a-day hunt. And with a growing sense of dread, Leetham had finally traced the intruders’ footprints to their final targets: the secret keys known as “seeds,” a collection of numbers that represented a foundational layer of the security promises RSA made to its customers, including tens of millions of users in government and military agencies, defense contractors, banks, and countless corporations around the world. more...
Christina Wilkie, Rich MendezWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he has ordered a closer intelligence review of what he said were two equally plausible scenarios of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden revealed that earlier this year he tasked the intelligence community with preparing “a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of Covid-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.” “As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” Biden said in a statement. more...
Over the space of a few brutal hours, the British prime minister’s former right hand-man painted a picture of utter incompetence as the pandemic took hold.Jamie RossIt normally takes decades for the full behind-the-scenes story of how a government messed up its response to a once-in-a-generation crisis to be shared with the public. This time, thanks to Boris Johnson’s former top adviser, all it took was a few short but devastating hours. Dominic Cummings was forced out of his job as the U.K. prime minister’s chief adviser late last year after a bitter factional dispute. On Wednesday morning, when he was invited to give evidence in parliament about the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, he took full advantage of the opportunity to torch his incredibly long list of enemies. more...
By Elliot HannonBelarus President Alexander Lukashenko defended his decision to intercept an international Ryanair flight over the weekend and force it to land, claiming in a speech to parliament that the country was under “hybrid attack” from western governments trying to “suffocate” it. Western governments have indeed condemned the brazen midair heist of a commercial jetliner, which by every measure appeared to target Roman Protasevich, a 26-year-old dissident journalist and vocal Lukashenko critic. Protasevich and his companion Sofia Sapega were subsequently arrested when the plane touched down in Minsk. The European Union responded, promising punitive measures and began lining up retaliatory sanctions against the regime, as well as revoked permission for Belarussian carriers to enter European airspace. “As we predicted, our ill-wishers from outside and inside the country have changed the methods of attacking the state,” Lukashenko said of the moves Wednesday. “No sooner had the plane landed in Minsk, carbon-copy accusations from the West and flight bans started pouring in.” more...
The Russian president may be fed up with Lukashenko’s drama but he’ll always side with his post-Soviet ally in any battle against the West.Anna NemtsovaLONDON—Rumors in Moscow continue to suggest that Vladimir Putin is growing sick of his out-of-control Belarusian sidekick. The relationship has always been tense and Alexander Lukashenko has jailed Russian soldiers and critics who pushed for closer ties to Russia, but Vladimir Putin isn’t about to take the West’s side in any flare-up. Dozens of world leaders condemned Lukashenko for ordering a fighter plane to force a Ryanair flight to land at an airport in Belarus so that a leading opposition journalist and his girlfriend could be arrested. Days passed by but the Kremlin said little about the unprecedented and wildly inflammatory hijacking of a passenger jet. Instead, Putin has responded by inviting Europe’s last dictator to visit him at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi later this week. more...
The latest efforts in China to regulate Bitcoin seems to be having a significant effect on mining and exchange businesses.Peter ChawagaLast week, news surfaced that China had banned financial institutions in the country from offering Bitcoin services and that it will be cracking down on mining. Many in the Bitcoin community (this publication included) met the news with rolling eyes — China has historically “banned” its businesses from using Bitcoin many times with little impact and it’s also not technically possible to outright ban Bitcoin from personal use. However, it’s clear that this latest regulatory measure is having a very tangible impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem as miners and exchanges based in the country are limiting or putting an end to their Bitcoin-focused activities. more...
By Hanna Ziady, CNN BusinessLondon (CNN Business) Some international airlines have started to avoid Belarus air space after a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in the country, and a dissident journalist on board was arrested. Germany's Lufthansa (DLAKY) reversed course late on Monday after saying earlier in the day that it continued to fly over Belarus and that a scheduled flight from Frankfurt to Minsk would go ahead. "Due to the current dynamic situation, we are suspending the operation in Belarusian airspace for the time being," a company spokesperson told CNN Business. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) said in a statement on Monday that it will reroute its twice weekly flights between Oslo and Kiev, the capitals of Norway and Ukraine, in line with instructions from the Swedish Transport Agency. more...
Shooting in Southwark, London came after numerous death threats, says her Taking the Initiative partyEdna MohamedThe Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is in a critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound to her head in an incident in south London, her affiliated group, Taking the Initiative party, has announced on social media. In a statement on the group’s Facebook page, the party said the incident happened in the early hours of Sunday and followed “numerous death threats”. A Met police statement said there was nothing to suggest that it had been a targeted attack. Taking the Initiative’s statement said: “It is with great sadness that we inform you that our own Sasha Johnson has sustained a gunshot wound to her head. She is currently hospitalised and in critical condition. The incident happened in the early hours of this morning, following numerous death threats. more...
Sinéad BakerUS officials believe that Russia may be behind the suspected directed-energy attacks on US government employees around the world, Politico's Lara Seligman and Andrew Desiderio reported. Three current and former officials told Politico that US officials suspect the GRU, Russia's military-intelligence agency. But the report added that the investigators did not have a smoking gun tying the suspected attacks to Russia. A congressional official who was briefed on the issue told Politico that US officials told lawmakers the investigation was expanding and was focused on whether the GRU was involved. more...
UN watchdog and Iran so far unable to agree terms for one-month extension of monitoring of nuclear sitesPatrick WintourThe future of talks to bring the US back into the Iran nuclear deal is under threat after the UN nuclear watchdog was unable to reach an expected agreement on how to continue to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency was forced to postpone a planned press conference on Sunday that was due to set out details of a one-month extension of the current light-touch inspection regime amid conflicting signals from Iran over whether it would sign up to it. The IAEA said its director general, Rafael Grossi, will continue consultations with Tehran on a technical agreement. The wider talks in Vienna on reviving the nuclear deal with the west, which Donald Trump took the US out of in 2018, are likely to collapse or be suspended if there is no agreement first between the IAEA and Iran on inspections. more...
By Lauren Turner | BBC NewsThe home secretary said Lord Dyson's probe into how Martin Bashir obtained the interview was a "really significant moment" for the BBC. The independent inquiry found Bashir used deception to get the interview. Asked whether the corporation would survive, Ms Patel said it would have to "reflect and learn lessons". She told The Andrew Marr show on BBC One it had been "utterly heart-breaking" to hear Diana's sons Prince William and Prince Harry speaking "in very personal terms" about their mother, following the publication of the report last week. more...
Iran has provided no information about cause of explosion in Isfahan that injured at least nine workersPatrick WintourA factory that makes Iranian drones has suffered a major explosion days after Israel had claimed that Iran was providing drones to Hamas in Gaza. The blast at the weekend injured at least nine workers at the petrochemical factory in Isfahan. The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (Hesa), which produces a variety of aircraft and drones for Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, is located in the complex owned by Sepahan Nargostar Chemical Industries. Iran has not provided information on the cause of the incident, but Israel has shown no compunction in the past about taking what it regards as reprisals inside Iran. more...
Becky SullivanJERUSALEM — The cease-fire between Israel and Gaza held for a second day Saturday, as focus turned to rebuilding after 11 days of fighting left more than 240 Palestinians and 12 Israelis dead. At the center of talks is the reconstruction of Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes destroyed hundreds of homes and commercial buildings, damaged six hospitals and 53 educational facilities, and damaged roads and electricity lines, according to the United Nations. Israel says it was targeting Hamas militants. Electricity shortages have created other problems: desalination plants that provide drinking water and sewage treatment plants are offline. About 800,000 people in Gaza are without regular piped water. more...
Natalie Wade, AFP USAAn Instagram account from BLM in Paterson, New Jersey, issued a similar statement of solidarity, saying: “Our struggles are connected in many ways.” But the BLM declarations were only general claims of support for Palestinians. They made no mention of Hamas, which the US, European Union, Israel and the Organization of American States consider a terrorist organization. AFP made repeated attempts to reach BLM for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. more...
Christina WilkieWASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday rejected his predecessor’s approach to North Korea and said his goal as president was to achieve a “total denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. Speaking at a joint press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Biden used the example of former President Donald Trump’s high-profile meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to illustrate what he, Biden, would never do. “If there was a commitment on which we met, then I would meet with [Kim],” said Biden. “And the commitment has to be that there is discussion about his nuclear arsenal.” more...
Jaclyn DiazLeaders around the world welcomed news of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas early Friday after days of hostilities killed at least 250 people, including some 70 children. After 11 days of the worst fighting in the region since 2014, global leaders called for both sides to resolve the decades-long conflict and to build a lasting, peaceful and stable future. President Biden's administration held "intense, high-level discussions hour by hour" with the Israelis, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and others to reach the truce. He said Thursday there is a "genuine opportunity" to build on the progress. more...
There's only one story dominating headlines today, and that is Prince William's statement in response to the findings that the BBC "fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark," with how Martin Bashir's explosive 1995 Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales, Diana, came to be. Gyles Brandreth, Denise Headley and Royal expert Camilla Tominey discuss the report's findings and the Princes' responses. video...
With lessons learned from earlier Israel-Hamas conflicts, the administration banked on quiet leverage and negotiation to bring a quicker end to hostilities.By NAHAL TOOSIAs Biden administration officials sought to end the latest Israeli-Palestinian fighting, they kept two numbers in mind: 2012 and 2014. The last two major conflagrations between Israel and Hamas militants who control the Gaza Strip took place in those years. The 2012 fighting lasted eight days, killing at least 160 Palestinians and six Israelis. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played a key role. The 2014 episode is often described as a war; it lasted some 50 days, killing more than 2,200 Palestinians and over 70 Israelis. John Kerry, Clinton’s successor, was deeply involved in trying to broker a resolution. more...
Ruth SherlockThese days, when Jamal al-Shareef, his wife or any of his six children need to go to the kitchen of their home in Jabalia, north of Gaza City, they plan when to do so as a family. The kitchen is on a side of the house that faces east, toward the Gazan border — and shellfire from the Israeli military. It feels too exposed to let any one of them go alone and risk injury. "Sometimes we crawl on our feet and hands in order to go to the kitchen to bring water," Shareef says. They try to avoid the windows in case there's a shelling attack. As the Israeli military continues to pound Gaza from the air, Palestinian families across the territory have huddled for more than a week now in stairwells — or whichever room in their home puts the most walls between them and the offensive outside. more...
Merrit Kennedy, Becky Sullivan, Laurel WamsleyIsraeli officials say they have voted for a cease-fire plan, after eleven days of fighting with Hamas. The cabinet voted to accept an Egyptian initiative for a cease-fire but they haven't agreed on a time to start, according to a statement from the cabinet. Israeli media report it could begin around 2 a.m. local time. Hamas spokesman Hazem Al Qassem says the militant group is open to a cease-fire if Israel stops its air strikes on Gaza. If Israel "stops its air raids in Gaza we can talk about a cease-fire. If they continue their aggression, there will be an escalation on the ground for sure," he told NPR. more...
By Francesca Gillett | BBC NewsThe BBC fell short of "high standards of integrity and transparency" over Martin Bashir's 1995 interview with Princess Diana, an inquiry has found. Bashir acted in a "deceitful" way and faked documents to obtain the interview, the inquiry said. And the BBC's own internal probe in 1996 into what happened was "woefully ineffective", it added. The BBC and Bashir have both apologised, and the BBC has written to Princes William and Harry. The corporation said the report showed "clear failings", admitting it should have made more effort to get to the bottom of what happened at the time. more...
Natasha TurakIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he was determined to continue the bombardment of Gaza, after U.S. President Joe Biden called for a “significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire” during a phone call between the two leaders. Netanyahu, shortly after speaking with Biden, said he is “determined to continue in this operation until its objective is achieved -- to bring back the quiet and security to…citizens of Israel,” according to The Jerusalem Post and other Israeli media outlets. The worst outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence since 2014 has entered its second week as militants in the blockaded Gaza Strip continue their rocket fire. more...
Jackie NorthamJERUSALEM — There's been no letup in fighting as the battle between Israel and Hamas enters its 10th day, despite growing international calls for a cease-fire. In one attack overnight, more than 50 warplanes pounded the southern part of the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military. The target was a vast network of tunnels, which Israel says is used by Hamas to shuttle weapons and people. Israel says more than 50 cross-border rocket attacks launched from Gaza set off sirens in some southern Israeli communities and killed two workers from Thailand. The Israeli military says more than 3,450 rockets have been launched from Gaza since the fighting began, more than in any previous conflict between Israel and Hamas. more...
Bill ChappellIsrael is pounding the Gaza Strip with artillery and tank fire as well as airstrikes, sending Palestinians rushing to find safety in the latest escalation of the conflict. Palestinian militants have now fired roughly 1,800 rockets at Israel, including hundreds that were intercepted or fell short of their targets. More than 119 Palestinians have died, the Gaza Health Ministry said. In Israel, authorities say seven people have died. A humanitarian crisis is rapidly developing: Along with the violence, much of Gaza was thrust into a blackout Thursday night after power lines were cut and a power plant ran out of fuel, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency. Gaza's water system has also been badly damaged, a resident told NPR. more...
The Associated PressGAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets on Saturday, hours after another air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in the city killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children. The strike on the high-rise came nearly an hour after the military ordered people to evacuate the 12-story building, which also housed Al-Jazeera, other offices and residential apartments. The strike brought down the entire structure, which collapsed in a gigantic cloud of dust. There was no immediate explanation for why it was attacked. more...
by Purdue UniversityMaking fresh water out of seawater usually requires huge amounts of energy. The most widespread process for desalination is called reverse osmosis, which works by flowing seawater over a membrane at high pressure to remove the minerals. Now, Purdue University engineers have developed a variant of the process called "batch reverse osmosis," which promises better energy efficiency, longer-lasting equipment and the ability to process water of much higher salinity. It could end up a difference-maker in water security around the world. more...
by Sarah Katz , Tech XploreFragmentation and aggregation attacks—or frag attacks—refer to a series of design flaws and programming security vulnerabilities affecting Wi-Fi devices. Recent studies have shown that any attacker within radio range of a target can potentially exploit these flaws. Research indicates that while the design flaws may prove more challenging to abuse due to the need for user interaction or uncommon network settings, the vulnerabilities related to programming pose a more significant risk. Unfortunately, these security flaws affect all contemporary Wi-Fi security protocols, from today's latest WPA3 spanning back to WEP beginning in 1997. This means that a plethora of devices have likely had similar vulnerabilities for many years. more...
By Hadas Gold, Abeer Salman and Amir Tal, CNNJerusalem (CNN) Israel's defense minister has warned that Israel has "many, many more targets" and no time limit on its military operations against Gaza, as the Israeli military and Palestinian militants continue to exchange deadly airstrikes and rocket bombardments.Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Hidai Zilberman said Israel was considering a ground incursion into Gaza, but stressed that any decision would "take days." Three Israeli brigades are currently deployed around Gaza. When asked by Israel Channel 12 News whether the troop movements were paving the way for a ground invasion, Zilberman responded: "We are amassing forces on the border, getting them prepared. Soldiers are learning the terrain. Getting ready. We will activate them when we decide to activate them. We have the initiative. We have time." more...
By Hadas Gold, Andrew Carey, Ibrahim Dahman, Ofri Eshel, Mostafa Salem and Abeer Salman, CNNJerusalem, Ashkelon and Gaza (CNN) The worst violence in years between Israelis and Palestinians showed no signs of letting up Wednesday, as continued Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket fire prompted the United Nations to warn the conflict could mushroom into "full-scale war."Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza has now killed at least 48 people, including 14 children, and injured more than 300 more, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry. Israel says at least 15 of the dead were Hamas militants. more...
Israel would "increase both the intensity of the attacks and the rate of attacks," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.By Alexander Smith, Lawahez Jabari and Paul GoldmanAt least 28 Palestinians, including 10 children, and two Israelis have been killed as tensions in Jerusalem escalated into airstrikes and exchanges of rocket fire between Israel and the Gaza Strip that lasted overnight into Tuesday. The clashes prompted international calls for calm and raised fears that the situation could ignite into a wider conflict. The Israeli military called up 5,000 reservists for active duty, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Israel would "increase both the intensity of the attacks and the rate of attacks." Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to stop "the Israeli aggression against our people." more...
By Tucker RealsIsrael's armed forces and Palestinian militants exchanged rocket fire on Tuesday as days of fighting centered around one of the holiest sites in the world for Muslims, Jews and Christians snowballed into another deadly flare-up in a decades-long conflict. The bloodshed was likely to get worse, as both sides threatened to escalate their attacks. The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, a tiny parcel of land run by the Hamas group but with borders strictly controlled by Israel, said on Tuesday that at least 26 people had been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the territory, including nine children. more...
By Eamon BarrettBlockchain enthusiasts tout Bitcoin and its cryptocurrency kin as decentralized digital assets, but the massive computing power required to maintain the digital ledger is heavily concentrated in a single country: China. According to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, roughly 70% of the hashrate for mining Bitcoin—that is, the processing power for verifying transactions on the blockchain’s ledger—is generated in China. The mining operations are clustered within a few geographies well-suited for housing large data centers: areas with low rents, temperate climates, and reliable access to cheap electricity. more...
“It is certain that the U.S. chief executive made a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint."By ASSOCIATED PRESSSEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Sunday warned the United States will face “a very grave situation” because President Joe Biden “made a big blunder” in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy against it. Last week, Biden, in his first address to Congress, called North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs “serious threats” to American and world security and said he’ll work with allies to address those problems through diplomacy and stern deterrence. more...
Reem Zubaidi and Zach FarberPalestinians in East Jerusalem rose up last week and pushed back a pogrom-like assault by Israeli fascists at the old city’s Damascus Gate, and Israeli repressive forces as well. In addition, on April 26 their militance and determination forced the Israeli occupiers to open the Damascus Gate allowing Palestinians to gather there during Ramadan. The gate, an entrance into the old city and its historic mosques, had been closed by the Israeli authorities. On April 22, members of Lehava, an Israeli version of the KKK, led a violent rampage of around 300 through East Jerusalem and tried to enter the old city via the Damascus Gate. The fascist mob chanted “Death to Arabs” in Hebrew throughout the evening while burning and destroying Palestinian homes and property. Palestinians gathered to defend their neighborhood, leading to large clashes with the fascists for days as crowds swelled in size. more...
Laura KuenssbergThe truth matters, doesn't it? In what's meant to be a grown-up Western democracy surely we'd all like to think so. It doesn't pay to be naïve. Politicians, even really honest ones, regularly say things they don't quite believe. The public knows this. We don't expect our politicians to be angels. But outright lying, in my experience, is relatively rare. It is too easily found out. Only one senior politician still in the game has ever privately told me something that was utterly, entirely, and completely untrue. It was proved publicly to be a lie a few days later. It's also rare for opposition parties to accuse a prime minister, on the record, of lying. Which brings us to Boris Johnson. more...
"There are four families that are in the New York area that we are in touch with," a spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs told NBC News.By Lawahez Jabari and Adela SulimanJERUSALEM — At least four U.S. citizens were among those dead after a stampede on the slopes of Israel's Mount Meron, a spokesman for the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday, as funeral preparations began. Lior Haiat told NBC News the ministry was assisting American families trying to fly into the country. "There are four families that are in the New York area that we are in touch with, and the consulate in New York is helping them," Haiat said. "There are two other families from Canada and one from Argentina and we're also in touch with their families," he added. more...
Luis AcostaThousands of Colombians took to the streets on Saturday for International Workers’ Day marches and protests against a government tax reform proposal, in a fourth day of demonstrations that have resulted in at least four deaths. Unions and other groups kicked off marches on Wednesday to demand the government of President Ivan Duque withdraw the reform proposal, which originally leveled sales tax on public services and some food. more...
By Tal AxelrodThe Taliban warned of future attacks on U.S. troops after a withdrawal deadline that was negotiated under the Trump administration passed Saturday. “As withdrawal of foreign forces from #Afghanistan by agreed upon May 1st deadline has passed, this violation in principle has opened the way for [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] Mujahidin to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces,” tweeted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid. more...
Manori RavindranA report has been filed with London’s Met Police relating to sexual misconduct allegations against British actor Noel Clarke. Met Police confirmed that they received a third party report on April 21 relating to allegations of sexual offenses by a man. Police are assessing the information, but an investigation is not currently underway. A statement shared with Variety reads: “On Wednesday, 21 April, police received a third party report relating to allegations of sexual offenses allegedly committed by a male over a period of time.” more...
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