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White House Pushes Ahead with Mideast Peace Plan

AP

May 20, 2018

The Trump administration is aiming to roll out its much-hyped but long-delayed Middle East peace plan next month amid signs it may further alienate the Palestinians by slashing millions of dollars in funding for humanitarian and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

Five U.S. officials and a congressional aide say the administration intends to release the peace plan in mid- to late-June, shortly after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, although they cautioned that the timing could slip depending on developments in the region. They say the plan's main authors — President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Trump's special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt — have already begun quietly briefing select allies and partners on elements of the proposal.

Yet any Palestinian willingness to even consider the plan would require conditions to improve and anger to subside considerably in the coming weeks, an unlikely scenario as the Palestinians say evidence of one-sided Trump giveaways to Israel continues to pile up. U.S. allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf also have felt compelled to criticize the administration for its approach. Ostensibly, Trump would need buy-in from those same countries to build enough momentum for any peace plan to succeed.

The administration has been resisting congressional demands to fully close the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington because Greenblatt and Kushner want to keep that channel open in case the Palestinians are open to re-entering negotiations with Israel based on the plan. The office was ordered closed by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last November, but has been allowed to stay open for limited purposes under the administration's interpretation of the law requiring it to be shut down in the absence of peace talks.

The prospect of Palestinian interest in the peace proposal appears dim, however, particularly since Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas recalled the mission's chief earlier this week to protest Monday's opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. The embassy move is said to have contributed to violent protests in Gaza that were met with deadly force from Israel. Nearly 60 Palestinians were killed Monday by Israeli forces, drawing condemnations and calls for restraint from Europe and elsewhere. The U.S. declined to join those calls and, while regretting the loss of life, opposed efforts at the U.N. to open an international investigation into the violence.

Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the embassy move and the administration's unreserved defense of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies have alienated and angered the Palestinian leadership, which accuses the administration of abandoning its role as a neutral arbiter in the conflict. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said any deal needs to be between the Palestinians and Israel — not the United States.

"I don't need Jason Greenblatt. I don't need Kushner," Erekat said. "It's our lives."

That sense of betrayal may deepen significantly this summer as millions of dollars in U.S. assistance to the Palestinians appears likely to be cut and the funds re-allocated to other regions. That money has been on hold since last year and existing funding for some projects will start to run out in just months if it is not approved in the next two weeks. If that does not happen, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development will have to notify aid recipients that continued U.S. funding is not forthcoming and those programs will begin to be shut down. Local staffers would be laid off and U.S. officials running the projects would be reassigned elsewhere.

Of $251 million in U.S. aid planned for the Palestinians in 2018, only $50.5 million has been reported spent, according to the government's online tracker, www.foreignassistance.gov. The remaining more than $200 million is currently on hold, a figure that does not include an additional $65 million in frozen U.S. assistance to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which provides services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon. The U.S. aid pays for programs on education, health, good governance and democracy promotion as well as disaster preparedness and security.

For several months the White House has been sitting on State Department and USAID recommendations to spend at least some of the money, according to the officials. Three officials said there is no indication those recommendations will be acted upon any time soon despite appeals from lawmakers and even expressions of concern from Israel, which sees value in the assistance especially in the security sector. One official said there was "an overwhelming lack of urgency" about making a decision on the funding. The other two said there was no sign that the end-of-May timeframe would be met.

"The administration is currently reviewing U.S. assistance to the Palestinians," USAID said in a statement to The Associated Press. "USAID is in discussions with all affected implementing partners on the status of the review, and is working closely with the interagency, as the administration concludes its review."

At immediate risk are between five and 10 of the some 20 USAID projects in the West Bank and Gaza, along with proposed new initiatives, the officials said. Without a quick decision those will run out of money by the end of 2018, they said. Nearly all of the others will run out of money in early 2019 unless the U.S. funding is unblocked, they said

INDEPENDENT

How long after this week's Gaza massacre are we going to continue pretending that the Palestinians are non-people?

Remember how they were to blame for their own exodus seven decades ago, because they followed the instructions of radio stations to leave their homes until the Jews of Israel were ‘driven into the sea’. Only, of course, the radio broadcasts never existed

Robert Fisk

May 17, 2018

Monstrous. Frightful. Wicked. It’s strange how the words just run out in the Middle East today. Sixty Palestinians dead. In one day. Two-thousand-four-hundred wounded, more than half by live fire. In one day. The figures are an outrage, a turning away from morality, a disgrace for any army to create.

And we are supposed to believe that the Israeli army is one of “purity of arms”? And we have to ask another question. If it’s 60 Palestinians dead in a day this week, what if it’s 600 next week? Or 6,000 next month? Israel’s bleak excuses – and America’s crude response – raise this very question. If we can now accept a massacre on this scale, how far can our immune system go in the days and weeks and months to come?

Yes, we know all the excuses. Hamas – corrupt, cynical, no “purity” there – was behind the Gaza demonstrations. Some of the protesters were violent, sent burning kites – kites, for heaven’s sake – across the border, others threw stones; though since when has stone-throwing been a capital offence in any civilised country? If an eight-month-old baby dies after tear gas inhalation, what were her parents doing bringing their infant child to the Gaza border? And so it goes on. Why complain about dead Palestinians when we have the Sisis in Egypt and the Assads in Syria and the Saudis in Yemen to contend with? But no, the Palestinians must always be guilty.

The victims are themselves the culprits. This is exactly what the Palestinians have had to endure for 70 years. Remember how they were to blame for their own exodus seven decades ago, because they followed the instructions of radio stations to leave their homes until the Jews of Israel were “driven into the sea”. Only, of course, the radio broadcasts never existed. We still must thank Israel’s “new historians” for proving this. The broadcasts were a myth, part of Israel’s foundational national history

invented to ensure that the new state – far from being founded on the ruins of other’s homes – was a land without people.

And it was a marvel to behold the way in which the same old reporting cowardice began to infect the media’s account of what happened in Gaza. CNN called the Israeli killings a “crackdown”.

References to the tragedy of the Palestinians in many news media referred to their “displacement” 70 years ago, as if they happened to be on holiday at the time of the “Nakba”, the catastrophe, as it’s known, and just couldn’t make it home again. The word to use should have been perfectly clear: dispossession. Because that is what happened to the Palestinians all those years ago and what is still happening in the West Bank – today, as you read this – courtesy of men like Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, a supporter of these wretched and illegal colonies built on Arab lands and appropriated from Arabs who have owned and lived on the land for generations.

And so we come to the most ghastly of all fateful events last week: the simultaneous bloodbath in Gaza and the glorious opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem.

“It’s a great day for peace,” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced. When I heard that, I wondered if my hearing was defective. Did he actually say those words? Alas, he did. At times like this, it is an immense relief to find that journals like the Israeli daily Haaretz maintain their sense of honour. And the most remarkable piece of reportage came in The New York Timeswhere Michelle Goldberg caught perfectly the horror of both Gaza and the embassy opening in Jerusalem.

The latter, she wrote, was “grotesque… a consummation of the cynical alliance between hawkish Jews and Zionist evangelicals who believe that the return of Jews to Israel will usher in the apocalypse and the return of Christ, after which Jews who don’t convert will burn forever.” Goldberg pointed out that Robert Jeffress, a Dallas pastor, gave the opening prayer at the embassy ceremony.

Jeffress, who once claimed that religions like “Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism” lead people “to an eternity of separation from God in hell”. The closing benediction came from John Hagee, an end-times preacher who, Goldberg recalled, once said that Hitler was sent by God to drive the Jews to their ancestral homeland.

Of Gaza, she added: “Even if you completely dismiss the Palestinian right of return – which I find harder to do now that Israel has all but abandoned the possibility of a Palestinian state – it hardly excuses the Israeli military’s disproportionate violence.” I’m not so sure, though, that Democrats have become more emboldened to discuss Israeli occupation as she thinks. But I think she’s right when she says that as long as Trump is president “it may be that Israel can kill Palestinians, demolish their homes and appropriate their land with impunity”.

Rarely in modern times have we come across an entire people – the Palestinians – treated as a non-people. Amid the trash and rats of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon – oh fateful names they remain – there is a hut museum of items brought into Lebanon from Galilee by those first refugees of the late 1940s: coffee pots and front door keys to houses long destroyed. They locked up their houses, many of them, planning to return in a few days.

But they are dying fast, that generation, like the dead of the Second World War. Even in the oral archives of the Palestinian expulsion (at least 800 survivors are recorded), organised in the American University of Beirut, they are finding that many whose voices were recorded in the late 1990s have since died.

So will they go home? Will they “return”? That, I suspect, is Israel’s greatest fear, not because there are homes to “return” to but because there are millions of Palestinians who claim their right – under UN resolutions – and who might turn up in their tens of thousands at the border fence in Gaza next time.

How many snipers will Israel need then? And, of course, there are the pitiful ironies. For there are families in Gaza whose grandfathers and grandmothers were driven from their homes less than a mile from Gaza itself, from two villages which existed precisely where today stands the Israeli town of Sderot, so often rocketed by Hamas. They can still see their lands. And when you can see your land, you want to go home.

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Pictures don’t lie? US envoy accepts fake photo with Jerusalem mosque replaced by Jewish temple

May 23, 2018

© Ammar Awad / Reuters

Tensions surrounding Jerusalem just got worse, thanks to a bit of make believe and Photoshop. The US ambassador was thrust into controversy after accepting a picture of the city which replaced a mosque with a third Jewish temple.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was all smiles as he accepted the aerial photo of Jerusalem during a tour of the city of Bnei Brak held by the ultra-Orthodox Achiya organization, which aids children suffering from learning disabilities.

While a gift to a US ambassador by an Israeli organization isn't exactly breaking news considering the Jewish State's extreme delight at Washington's decision to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, this one particular gift was more than a bit absurd, because it isn't at all factual.

The photo shows the iconic Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock replaced with the Third Temple, which has been long sought after by Jews. The image of Friedman was first published on the ultra-Orthodox news website Kikar Hashabat.

Once the US Embassy saw the doctored photo, it snapped back by saying that Friedman "was not aware of the image thrust in front of him when the photo was taken. He was deeply disappointed that anyone would take advantage of his visit to Bnei Brak to create controversy." It went on to reiterate that the US "supports the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount."

The embassy demanded an apology from the non-profit organization which gifted the photo, an official told Haaretz. It later received one, with the non-profit saying that "regretfully the entire event was marred by a cheap political act." It added that "the responsible staff member was identified and apologizes and we will deal with the matter internally in the organization."

Meanwhile, despite the US Embassy insisting that Washington supports the status quo, others aren't so sure. Al-Aqsa Mosque even made it into a Dutch comedian's parody of Israel's winning Eurovision song. "The world’s leaders are eating out of my hand… we’re throwing a party, are you coming? Later, at the al-Aqsa mosque, which will be empty soon anyway,” one lyric states. Israel's Embassy in the Netherlands has lodged an official complaint.

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+972

Ad for Israeli maternity ward portrays fetus as future soldier

Militarism begins at conception? An ad for a maternity ward in one of Israel’s top hospitals depicts a fetus wearing a military beret and saluting.

By Mairav Zonszein

May 23, 2018

An advertisement for Ichilov Hospital’s Lis Maternity and Women’s Hospital. (Screenshot)

An advertisement for a maternity ward in one of Israel’s top hospitals, published in the right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon this past week, has been making the rounds on social media.

The ad for Lis Maternity Hospital, part of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, shows a fetus wearing a military beret, with a caption reading: “Recipient of the Presidential Award of Excellence, 2038.”

Portraying an unborn child as a soldier is disturbing in its own right, regardless of country. In Israel, an occupying power whose military has for over five decades been primarily concerned with maintaining control over a civilian population, this ad is even more charged and offensive. Furthermore, its timing is especially disturbing, considering that the IDF killed 60 Palestinians and wounded over 2,400 in a single day in Gaza, while continuing to exert control over millions of stateless Palestinians.

The notion that a good hospital will produce good soldiers is pathological. That a top hospital believes the best way to get women to choose their maternity ward is by convincing them their baby is destined to be a successful soldier in the Israel Defense Forces is also a genuine indication of just how militaristic Israeli society is. As if women don’t have enough on their minds as they approach birth, now they must be reminded that in 18 years, their child will be conscripted into the army. Regardless of their politics, Israeli mothers (and fathers) go through hell when their children — specifically their sons — serve in the army.

Israel, which consistently attacks Palestinian leadership and society for giving birth to “terrorists” and educating children to hate, seems to conveniently forget the deep militaristic, violent roots of its own society. This ad is just one indication of that.

Some Israelis on Facebook have expressed their disgust and outrage, demanding the hospital pull the ad. When asked for comment, Ichilov Hospital Spokesperson Avi Shushan wrote in an email: “This was a one time ad published in Makor Rishon.” He did not respond questions about those who were disturbed by the ad.

Update (Thursday, May 24, 7 p.m.):
Ichilov Hospital spokesperson Avi Shushan sent me another email about 12 hours after his initial response stating that due to the hospital’s “attentiveness to the feelings of the general public and following complaints, we have ordered the advertising firm to immediately take down the ad,” and apologized for any anguish caused. Upon time of publishing this update, the ad still appears online in the digital version of the print paper, but Shushan confirms that they have instructed the ad agency to take it down. The hospital received only a few complaints, he added.

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LifeNews.com

Exit Poll Claims Ireland Votes to Legalize Abortions Up to 6 Months, Overturn Legal Protections for Unborn Babies

Steven Ertelt

May 25, 2018

The first exit poll following today’s vote on abortion in Ireland claims Irish voters have voted to overturn the nation’s legal protections for unborn children — setting up government-sponsored legislation to legalize abortions on babies as old as 6 months.

A poll for the Irish Times of voters as they left polling venues suggests an overwhelming victory for pro-abortion forces, with 68% or Irish voters backing abortion and 32 percent voting No. The exit poll is only a prediction of what may have happened at the polls today and the official count will be announced Saturday in the afternoon or evening local time in Ireland.

The poll suggests a 77 per cent victory for Yes in Dublin, with two thirds of people also supporting a Yes vote in Leinster and Munster.

A total of 70 per cent of women voted in favour of legalising terminations, and support was also high among men, who voted 65 – 35 in favour of lifting the ban.

Even areas predicted to have a large no vote seem to have opted in favour of the law change.

Connacht-Ulster voted yes by 59 per cent to 41, the poll found.

As expected, younger voters were overwhelmingly in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment – the poll suggests that 87 per cent of 18-24s voted Yes.

The over-65 age group were the only age group with a majority No vote.

A total of 4000 voters were interviewed by Ipsos/MRBI throughout Thursday, at 160 locations, throughout every constituency in Ireland.

A second exit poll from another research firm appears to confirm the results. A RTE/Behaviour & Attitudes exit poll found voters leaving polling stations say they voted to legalize abortion on a 69-31 percent margin.

But the exit polling data flies in the face of internal polling from pro-life groups showing a close vote and fears from abortion advocates that turnout was depressed in the urban areas they need to legalize abortions. Prior to the release of the exit polling data, pro-abortion campaigners in Ireland were worried that their massive attempt to legalize abortion in the historically pro-life country may go down in defeat.

Abortion advocates are relying on pro-abortion voters to turn out heavily in Dublin knowing that support for abortion is higher in urban areas as compared to the suburbs and rural parts of Ireland. However, with just hours to go in the polling, which has now closed, pro-abortion campaigners were panic-stricken because the turnout was considerably lower in the places where they need lots of people to show up to the polls.

As The Sun reports:

REPEAL the eighth amendment campaigners have warned that turnouts are slower than normal in the Eighth Amendment referendum.

Having spoken to local politicians, the campaign in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment flagged that numbers are slowing down – and urged people to get out and vote.

In a Facebook post, Together For Yes said: “Turnout reports high across the country, but slowing fast, and some parts of Dublin comparatively MUCH LOWER – Dublin Central, Rathfarnham, Ballymun and Finglas, Ballinteer, Tallaght and Deansgrange.

“We need a high turnout in these areas! Yes voters, get to the polling stations!

“Some other areas outside Dublin where we need a higher turnout include Dunshaughlin, Dunboyne, Galway City, Waterford City, South Cork City and sections of Limerick. Forget the sun, and get to the polls. We’re reliably informed the sun will still be here tomorrow.”

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‘Strongest sanctions in history’: Pompeo issues 12 demands to Iran, vows ‘unprecedented pressure’

May 21, 2018

© Raheb Homavandi / Reuters

Tehran will struggle to “keep its economy alive” if it does not comply with a list of 12 US demands, including Iranian withdrawal from Syria, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed on Monday.

Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing Washington think tank, Pompeo laid out a list of 12 “basic requirements”for Iran. The demands call on Iran to withdraw from Syria, "release all US citizens," end support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, stop “enrichment" of uranium, and promise never to process plutonium. Iran must also allow "unqualified access to all nuclear sites throughout the country," Pompeo said.

He promised that the US would impose the "strongest sanctions in history" if Iran failed to comply with these demands.

Pompeo said that “the sting of sanctions will be painful” and Iran will struggle to “keep its economy alive” if Tehran “does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen.”

“Thanks to our colleagues at the Department of Treasury, sanctions are going back in full effect and new ones are coming … These will indeed end up being the strongest sanctions in history,” Pompeo said.

The secretary of state also pledged that the US "will track down Iranian operatives and their Hezbollah proxies operating around the world, and we will crush them. Iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East."

Speaking directly to the Iranian people, Pompeo claimed that “President [Hassan] Rouhani and Foreign Minister [Javad] Zarif… are your elected leaders. Are they not the most responsible for your economic struggles?" He added: “The United States believes you deserve better.”

Pompeo also said he's sure that over time, Washington's allies will warm to the Trump administration's now unpopular stance on Iran.

Washington’s strategy is to weaken Iran economically, rather than engage in an actual war, Dr. Said Sadik, Professor of political sociology at the American university of Cairo, told RT in response to Pompeo’s address. “What the [US] is doing now is increase sanctions trying to undermine the power of Iran regionally, economically with the hope that that would lead to unrest and disturbances in Iran, that it would make the Iranian government stop trying to help its allies or extend its influence in the area. This is basically what they want.”

Sadik added: “I don’t think they want a war because war is very expensive and dangerous in this strategic area…What they want is to weaken Iran financially, economically, with the hope that the Iranian government will not be that powerful in the area as it is now.”

The speech comes after Trump announced earlier this month that he was pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Europeans allies had pleaded with Trump not to withdraw from the historic accord, which put tight restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani described the US pull-out from the deal as a "historic experience for Iran," adding that "by exiting the deal, America has officially undermined its commitment to an international treaty."

Iran says it expects the EU to continue to honor the agreement, despite Washington’s withdrawal from the accord. Inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have repeatedly confirmed that Iran is in full compliance with its obligations under the deal.

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PRESSTV

Israel is universally rejected in US for the first time: Journalist

May 26, 2018

The unanimously passed US House of Representatives amendment, which bans President Donald Trump from declaring a war on Iran, shows Israel is universally rejected in the United States for the first time, according to an American political commentator and journalist.

Gordon Duff, senior editor at Veterans Today, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday, after the US House of Representatives unanimously passed an amendment on Wednesday that bans Trump from declaring a war on Iran without the Congress’s approval.

The amendment, introduced by Democratic Representative Keith Maurice Ellison and cosponsored by a number of other Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers, made clear Congress’s position that no law exists which gives the president power to launch a military strike against the Islamic Republic.

“It could be seen in a couple of ways,” Duff said. “But one is it’s a total rejection of the policies of Trump and [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo by the entire House of Representatives – something that’s never before seen in the United States.”

“It could also be seen as a prelude to the impeachment of President Trump. There is no other question about this that his policies rejected his relationship with Israel,” he stated.

“Israel is universally rejected in the United States for the first time. Not one member of Congress voted in alliance with Israel’s request. Not one. Unimaginable!” he concluded.

Ellison's amendment came two weeks after Washington unilaterally walked out of a multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and major powers in 2015. The move was construed by many as a declaration of war against Tehran.

“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,” Ellison said.

Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.

Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

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WND

'UTTER SHAM': TURKEY'S IMPRISONMENT OF U.S. PASTOR PRESENTED TO U.N.

Judge dismisses all defense witnesses, accepts prosecution testimony from secret witnesses

May 25, 2018

Andrew Brunson, an evangelical pastor, with wife Norine, had ministered in Turkey for 23 years before he was arrested Oct. 7, 2016.

The United Nations is being warned that Turkey is violating international law in its prosecution of an American Christian pastor who has served a community of Christians in the Muslim nation for many years.

The case against Andrew Brunson is based on “utter sham” charges, according to the American Center for Law and Justice, which is drawing attention to Brunson’s plight.

The ALCJ now has delivered to the United Nations Human Rights Council a legal submission that points out Turkey’s offenses.

The nation, under the direction of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has made no secret of his hopes for a Muslim caliphate with Turkey at its center, arrested Brunson more than a year ago and held him for months without any charges.

Finally, when a court hearing was held, he was accused of working with Erdogan’s political opponents, and the judges “basically barred any witnesses for Pastor Andrew’s defense.”

“These actions violate Articles 9 (right to liberty and security of person), 14 (equality before the courts and tribunals), and 18 (right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion), of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Turkey is a signatory, as well as Articles 7 (equality before the law and equal protection of the law), 9 (no arbitrary arrest or detention), 10 (fair and public hearing), and 11 (presumed innocent until proved guilty) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and Article 5 (right to liberty and security of person & lawfulness of detention), and 6 (adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR),” the ACLJ told the U.N.

“Additionally, Articles 10 and 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey protect the rights of everyone to equality before the law ‘without distinction as to . . . political opinion, philosophical belief, religion and sect,’ as do Articles 2 and 7 of the UDHR and Article 18 of the ICCPR. These rights include the freedom, ‘either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching’. Article 5 of the ECHR guarantees that no one shall be arbitrarily ‘deprived of his liberty.’ Article 36 of Turkey’s Constitution also protects the right to litigation ‘before the courts through lawful means and procedure.’

“Turkey has violated all of these protections by arresting and detaining an innocent pastor in prison for over a year and a half based on the hearsay testimony of secret witnesses. Moreover, Turkey has denied Pastor Brunson the opportunity to mount an adequate defense by flippantly dismissing all defense witness testimony,” the ACLJ told the U.N.

“Pastor Andrew is innocent. He has cooperated with authorities over the past 19 months despite the ongoing violations of his human rights. No real evidence has been presented against him. Turkey is holding him as a political pawn. Their game must end NOW,” the group said.

The group summarized the history of the case: “For 23 years, Pastor Brunson worked openly in Izmir, Turkey, serving as the pastor of the Izmir Resurrection Church, within a small Protestant Christian community. On 7 October 2016, Pastor Brunson received a written summons to report with his passport to a local police station. Believing the summons was related to his routine renewal of his residence visa, Pastor Brunson promptly reported to the Izmir police only to be arrested, and later told that he was to be deported as a ‘national security risk.’ However, Pastor Brunson was never deported, he was instead transferred to the Harmandali Detention Centre and held for 63 days. During this time, he was denied access to an attorney and repeated requests by U.S. officials to visit Pastor Brunson were ignored, raising serious concerns.”

Later he was moved to a prison allegedly suspected of “membership in an armed terrorist organization,” even though there was no evidence.

No indictment came until March 2018, and its 62 pages were “wholly lacking in merit” and provided “no evidence.”

At a “trial” in April, prosecution witnesses were secret, with appearances and voices disguised.

WND reported earlier in Brunson’s case that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom blasted Turkey’s handling of the case.

“The judge’s decision at the conclusion of today’s hearing to dismiss all of the witnesses called by Pastor Brunson’s defense without listening to a single minute of their testimony is simply unconscionable,” said Sandra Jolly, the vice chair of the USCRIF, at the time of the hearing.

Jolly attended the hearing in a Turkish courtroom for Brunson and saw nearly 11 hours of proceedings. Brunson’s next hearing is July 18.

“We leave the courthouse with serious concerns. Today’s 11 hours of proceedings were dominated by wild conspiracies, tortured logic, and secret witnesses, but no real evidence to speak of. Upon these rests a man’s life,” said Jolley.

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ARUTZ SHEVA

Activist arrested, sentenced, within an hour

English activist Tommy Robinson is arrested for 'disturbing the public peace,' sentenced to jail within one hour.

Dalit Halevi

May26, 2018

P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0in">Tommy Robinson, a right-wing activist who warned about radical Islam in England, was arrested on Friday in Leeds.

At the time of his arrest, Robinson was reporting live on Facebook across from the courthouse. Less than an hour after his arrest, he was sentenced to thirteen months in jail.

The policemen who arrested Robinson claimed he was causing disturbances to public peace. In videos of the arrest, Robinson can be seen speaking into his cellular phone as he is arrested, and asking police officers for an explanation of why he was arrested.

Robinson had originally arrived at the courthouse to cover the court cases of Muslims charged with raping young women and forcing them to serve as prostitutes. Currently, England has a gag order on the topic.

When the accused were brought to court, Robinson called out to them, and in his Facebook videos, he emphasized that they are suspects.

Attorney Ezra Levant, who founded The Rebel and served as Robinson's employer until a few months ago, said, "The English court has murdered its reputation in the areas of freedom and law."

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WND

SCHOOL BOARD STUNNER: THERE IS NO 'BIOLOGICAL SEX'

Plans to overhaul graphic 'Family Life Education' curriculum also tells kids 'clergy' not to be trusted

By Bob Unruh

May 20, 2018

In an apparent competition among American public school boards to see which sex-education program can be made the most graphic and politically correct, there’s likely a new leader.

In a stunning development, the Fairfax County School Board in Northern Virginia is considering teaching children there is no such thing as “biological sex” and also that “clergy” are not to be trusted if students have questions.

Within just the past few weeks, WND has reported on the Albemarle district in Virginia, which was warned its explicit sex videos to classes of 14-year-old girls likely were felony violations of state and federal laws.

And the Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona, was warned that its proposed sex-ed program is both “illegal” and “obscene.”

Now, according to the Family Research Council, comes the Fairfax board.

“Already, each public school student must suffer through 80 hours of sex ed. That’s not a typo: 8-0,” the report said. “They call it ‘Family Life Education’ but everybody knows that’s a joke. You won’t find lessons on building happy marriages and healthy families here. No, instead you’ll find hour after hour of instruction on your evolving ‘sexual identity,’ on the proper handling of contraceptive drugs and devices, and on how to give consent for sex.”

But the report by Cathy Ruse said the move to something less “repressive” was being considered.

She noted among the ideas being reviewed was to teach children “they weren’t actually born male or female. Advisers scrubbed ‘biological sex’ from all lessons and in its place put the politically charged ‘gender-fluid’ propaganda term ‘sex assigned at birth.’ As one adviser explained: ‘Biological sex is meaningless!'”

Further, the board’s plan is to teach seventh and eighth grade students “to embrace transgender identity, but don’t tell them about the risks.”

“Advisers voted against telling children about any of the health risks and side effects from ‘gender transitioning.'”

The board also wants to stop teaching students “abstinence is the only 100 percent effective method” to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

But they are to be taught “how to use every imaginable contraceptive drug, device, and cream.”

They want to make lessons on dating and family mandatory, meaning students would not be able to opt out, mostly likely.

And they want to remove an “offensive” word.

“The sex ed advisers have finally identified a word that was too offensive for students to hear. They voted to strip the word ‘clergy’ from the list of trusted adults that students might consult with sexual identity concerns.”

FRC said the district in Falls Church, Virginia, is taking comments on the plan until June 8.

“Fairfax kids deserve better. And the Fairfax School Board members need to find another line of work,” the FRC report said.

The warning to Sunnyside schools in Arizona came from Liberty Counsel, which said the Planned Parenthood-linked “Rights, Respect, Responsibility” program for children references necrophilia, promotes abortion and homosexuality, and “imposes radical, unscientific, political ideas about gender and sexuality on impressionable children.”

The legal team, representing parents in the district, is advising the school board, led by president Buck Crouch, against the “comprehensive sex education” indoctrination being promoted by “Advocates for Youth.” The program uses abortion-industry-promoted “standards” based “upon the sex data of Alfred Kinsey, which included timed-with-a-stopwatch ‘orgasms’ for infants as young as two months old.”

“The Sunnyside Unified School District is hereby on notice of the many legal violations contained in the 3Rs curriculum. The board should reject the 3Rs curriculum in its entirety, and adopt true abstinence-based curricula which provides accurate information, and respects student and parent rights, consistent with Arizona state standards. There are many such,” the Liberty Counsel letter said.

“However, if the district nonetheless illegally adopts the curriculum in violation of the current applicable, binding Arizona statutes set forth above, Liberty Counsel is prepared to take additional action to prevent irreparable harm to the rights of our numerous local constituents.”

The Liberty Counsel letter warned: “Displaying and advertising material that is obscene or harmful to minors is illegal under Ariz. Rev. Stat. [Paragraph] 13-3506. ‘It is unlawful for any person, with knowledge of the character of the item involved, to recklessly furnish, present, provide, make available, give, lend, show, advertise or distribute to minors any item that is harmful to minors.’ Yet 3Rs does exactly that, in 12th grade, instructing the teacher to present, show, and advertise and discuss pornographic magazines such as Playboy, Playgirl, and Penthouse.”

In fact, its lesson involving Playboy and Penthouse “is a Class 6 felony.”

Liberty Counsel told the Albemarle district its programming, also from Planned Parenthood, is “gutter trash.”

“This is not education. This is raping children. The school district has caused irreversible harm to children and parents. The school must never allow this to happen again,” the legal team said.

The curriculum was forced on students during a presentation from a group called Sexual Assault Resource Agency, which, Liberty Counsel explained, was allowed to present “pornographic videos and curriculum” to students.

Liberty Counsel now represents the parents of the mostly 14-year-old girls at West Albemarle County High school who were in “Family Life Education” classes on April 13. The classes were led by Lexie Huston, an employee of Planned Parenthood-linked SARA, the legal team said.

In a letter to the district and its officials, Liberty Counsel pointed out the presentation violated Virginia law protecting minors, including a ban on abusing children, encouraging them to engage in sex acts or perform sex acts.

Earlier this year, WND reported on a new campaign to rally parents against laws in 43 states that effectively protect porn in some education settings.

“Before today’s kindergarteners graduate from high school, around 4.5 million students in America will experience sexual abuse at the hands of a school employee,” campaign organizers said.

“Liberty Counsel discovered that the laws in 43 states have exemptions from obscenity laws that permit sexually explicit materials in schools that can facilitate this kind of misbehavior. These laws protect school employees who provide students with pornographic materials from criminal prosecution under the guise that the materials are ‘educational,'” the group said.

Liberty Counsel has drawn up a template to be used for states to fix their laws.

“It is ridiculous to claim that legally harmful, pornographic material magically becomes innocent because the person providing it changed jobs,” said Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel. “It is time to hold our teachers and coaches to the same legal standards as all other adults. From Hollywood to hometown America, children deserve to be protected from harmful materials, grooming and rape.”

***

The Guardian

Pope Francis tells gay man: 'God made you like this'

Juan Carlos Cruz, who was sexually abused, says pontiff told him God did not mind that he was gay

May 20, 2018

Juan Carlos Cruz said some of Chile’s bishops had sought to depict him as a pervert as they accused him of lying about abuse. Photograph: Andres Kudacki/AP

A survivor of clerical sexual abuse has said Pope Francis told him that God had made him gay and loved him, in arguably the most strikingly accepting comments about homosexuality to be uttered by the leader of the Roman Catholic church.

Juan Carlos Cruz, who spoke privately with the pope two weeks ago about the abuse he suffered at the hands of one of Chile’s most notorious paedophiles, said the issue of his sexuality had arisen because some of the Latin American country’s bishops had sought to depict him as a pervert as they accused him of lying about the abuse.

“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,’” Cruz told Spanish newspaper El País.

Now 87, Fernando Karadima, the man who abused Cruz, was found guilty of abuse by the Vatican in 2011.

Greg Burke, the Vatican’s chief spokesman, did not respond to questions about whether Cruz’s statement accurately reflected his conversation with the pope.

It is not the first time it has been suggested Francis has an open and tolerant attitude toward homosexuality, despite the Catholic church’s teaching that gay sex – and all sex outside of heterosexual marriage – is a sin. In July 2013, in response to a reporter’s question about the existence of an alleged “gay lobby” within the Vatican, Francis said: “Who am I to judge?”

The new remarks appear to go much further in embracing homosexuality as a sexual orientation that is designed and bestowed by God. It suggests that Francis does not believe that individuals choose to be gay or lesbian, as some religious conservatives argue.

Austen Ivereigh, who has written a biography of the pope, said Francis had likely made similar comments in private in the past, when he served as a spiritual director to gay people in Buenos Aires, but that Cruz’s public discussion of his conversation with Francis represented the most “forceful” remarks on the subject since 2013.

It did not, however, represent a shift in church teaching, Ivereigh said, since the church had never formally made any pronouncements on why individuals were gay.

Christopher Lamb, the Vatican correspondent for the Tablet, said the comments were remarkable and a sign of a shift in attitudes taking place. “It goes beyond ‘who am I to judge?’ to ‘you are loved by God,’” said Lamb. “I don’t think he has changed church teaching but he’s demonstrating an affirmation of gay Catholics, something that has been missing over the years in Rome.”

The remarks come as several high profile members of the clergy have sought to publicly make inroads with gay Catholics, many of whom have felt shunned and unwelcome in the church and have been ostracised.

Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest in New York who has nearly 200,000 Twitter followers, has led the outreach effort and was chosen last month to serve as a consultor to the Vatican’s secretariat for communications.

Martin has argued in his book Building a Bridge that the onus is on the church to make LGBT Catholics feel welcome in the church and to stop discriminating against people based on their “sexual morality”.

AMMC

AMERICAN MILITARY NEWS

Trump cancels summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

May 24, 2018

The White House issued a letter to Kim on Thursday, which read:

Dear Mr. Chairman:

We greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore. We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant. l was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.

I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated.

If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.

Sincerely yours,

Donald J. Trump
President of the United States of America

North Korea on Wednesday had again threatened to cancel the upcoming June 12 summit in Singapore with President Trump and Kim Jong Un if the United States keeps up “evil acts.”

***

STRATEGIC CULTURE

Brussels Rises in Revolt Against Washington: a Turning Point in the US-European Relationship

ALEX GORKA | 19.05.2018

The May 16-17 EU-Western Balkans summit did address the problems of integration, but it was eclipsed by another issue. The meeting turned out to be a landmark event that will go down in history as the day Europe united to openly defy the US. The EU will neither review the Iran nuclear deal (JPCOA) nor join the sanctions against Tehran that have been reintroduced and even intensified by America. Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the JPCOA was the last straw, forcing the collapse of Western unity. The Europeans found themselves up against a wall. There is no point in discussing further integration or any other matter if the EU cannot protect its own members. But now it can.

President Trump has his own reasons to shred the Iran deal, but he needs Europe to strong-arm Tehran into signing a “better” agreement. Were it to do so, the US administration would make it look like a big victory. Washington does not shy away from threatening its allies with punitive measures but the EU is standing tall, deepening the rift. As European Council President Donald Tusk put it, “With friends like Trump, who needs enemies?” According to him, the US president has “rid Europe of all illusions.” Mr. Tusk wants Europe to “stick to our guns” against new US policies. Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the EU Commission, believes that “Europe must take America's place as global leader” because Washington has turned its back on its allies. Washington “no longer wants to cooperate.” It is turning away from friendly relations “with ferocity.” Mr. Juncker thinks the time is ripe for Europe “to replace the United States, which as an international actor has lost vigor.” It would have been unthinkable not long ago for a top EU official to say such things and challenge the US global leadership. Now the unthinkable has become reality.The process of shifting away from America does not boil down to just words of indignation and open defiance. Plans are underway to take practical steps. For instance, the EU is to ditch the use of the US currency in its payments for Iranian oil. It can be done. Russia and Iran have already launched an oil-for-goods exchange program in order to leave the greenback behind. The bloc plans to activate a 1996 law (the blocking statute), which bans European businesses from compliance with US sanctions on Iran. The legislation protects "against the effects of the extra-territorial application of legislation adopted by a third country."The EU-Iran discussions have already been held. And it is America’s closest ally who is to deal the first powerful blow against US global dominance. This is a demonstration of the “no retreat, no surrender” spirit before the not-yet-unleased war is in full swing.True, this applies to only a relatively small sector of business activities, and Iran’s $400-billion market can’t be compared to the $18-trillion US market, but the important factor here is the show of political will to stand up to America’s challenge. This rift is taking place amid a looming trade war over aluminum and steel, the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem with no regard for the allies’ opinion, and the controversy over Europe’s NATO spending.On May 15, the EU defense heads gathered at a meeting of the European Union Military Committee to discuss ] deeper integration and an independent defense policy, which envisages greater efficiency to reduce expenditures, given the US demands to increase those outlays under the auspices of NATO. The PESCO agreement is the backbone of the EU defense policy and it’s purely European.Sandra Oudkirk, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy, ] has just threatened to sanction the Europeans if they continue with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project to bring gas in from Russia across the Baltic Sea. That country is also seen by the US as an adversary and its approach is by and large the same – to issue orders for Europe to adopt a confrontational policy, doing as it is told without asking too many questions.Iran and Nord Stream 2 unite Moscow and Brussels in their opposition to this diktat. On May 17, Iran signed a provisional free-trade-zone agreement with a Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) that seeks to increase the current levels of trade valued at $2.7 billion. The deal lowers or abolishes customs duties. It also establishes a three-year process for reaching a permanent trade agreement. If Iran becomes a member of the group, it would expand its economic horizons beyond the Middle Eastern region. So, Europe and Russia are in the same boat, both holding talks with Iran on economic cooperation.President Donald Trump has just instructed ] Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prepare a list of new sanctions against the Russian Federation for its alleged violations of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This is the agreement the US has so egregiously and openly breached. But nobody in Europe has announced that they want US nuclear-tipped intermediate- range weapons on their territory that will be a target for a potential retaliatory strike by Russia. It’s an example of yet another European problem with having the decision-making process located in Washington.If Europe is resolved to fend off US attempts to dictate its policy on Iran, why should it reconcile itself to the pressure to keep the sanctions against Russia intact? May 17 marked a turning point in the US-European relationship. Europeans joined ranks to resist a policy that encroaches on their right to decide their own fate. It’s Europe, not the US, who is negatively affected by the punitive measures, creating deep divisions within the EU at a time when that group is faced with many problems. The time is ripe for Brussels to stop this sanctions-counter-sanctions mayhem and stake out its own independent policies on Russia, Iran, defense, and other issues, that will protect European, not US, national interests. May 17 is the day the revolt started and there is no going back. Europe has said goodbye to trans-Atlantic unity. It looks like it has had enough.

***

Sick & tired of US foreign policy, Germany is pushed into the open arms of China

Darius Shahtahmasebi is a New Zealand-based attorney and political analyst.

May 26, 2018

China's President Xi Jinping (R) meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 24, 2018. © Jason Lee / Reuters

Germany has had enough of American foreign policy. Angela Merkel’s visits to Russia and China are a testament to that.

On May 10, 2018, German Chancellor Angela Merkel openly said that Europe can no longer count on the United States to protect it, hinting that the European continent would begin to “take destiny into its own hands.”

The comments were, of course, a direct reference to US President Donald Trump’s ludicrous but anticipated decision to completely nuke the Iranian nuclear accord, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“It is no longer such that the United States simply protects us, but Europe must take its destiny in its own hands. That's the task of the future," Merkel reportedly said during a speech honoring French President Emmanuel Macron.

Eerily enough, approximately a year ago, Merkel offered almost the exact same sentiments, stating that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands.”

In the weeks since, Merkel has certainly proved that this was no idle threat. The German chancellor has made trips to both Russia and China, and the outcomes of those meetings appear to suggest a complete restructuring of the balance of power in Europe and Asia respectively.

China and Germany see eye to eye

Just this Thursday, China has already said it would “open its door wider” to German businesses after giving Merkel a warm reception. Both China and Germany have a common interest in defeating Trump’s plan to kill trade surpluses that countries have with the United States, as they are both equally affected by Trump’s threats. Each time Trump opens his mouth, it seems that European and Asian businesses areinstantly affected. Germany is the largest auto exporter to the US out of any European country, and is China’s biggest European trading partner which was worth $179 billion just last year alone.

Both Merkel and Macron tried their hand at persuading the Trump administration not to abandon the Iranian nuclear deal completely. The leaders even issued a joint statement with British Prime Minister Theresa May, someonewhose hawkish attitude towards Iran should not go unnoticed. Not surprisingly, according to Reuters, German officials have said that “Trump’s America First’ trade policy, his administration’s professed disdain for the World Trade Organization, as well as his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, have pushed China and Germany into closer alignment.”

It is not clear if the Trump administration is that incompetent or if this is done on purpose, in full knowledge that its actions will only further isolate the United States on the world stage and push states that previously held more adversarial positions closer and closer together. If it is done on purpose, one has to wonder what sort of mindset is behind the leadership which is on a self-destruct mission, and how it expects to maintain its worldwide empire, all the while irking its traditional allies. It is quite clear that Trump’s decision to axe the Iran deal will only pave the way for China to take advantage of the financial opportunities flowing out of Iran if sanctions present a buffer to German interests. China has already been assisting Iran to out-maneuver US-led sanctions through, for example, the use of credit lines using the Yuan.

In that context, does Donald Trump want to contain China or empower it? You can only go so far serving the interests of Saudi Arabia and Israel while ignoring strong European states who would rather ink financial deals than turn Iran into a glass crater, a strong point of difference between Merkel and say, newly appointed US national security adviser John Bolton.

The lifting of sanctions on Iran already led to an increase in trade between Germany and Iran from €2.7 billion in 2014 to €3.5 billion last year. It is also worth noting that Iran will now start accepting euros for its oil in an attempt to not only avoid the US dollar, but in a move that will directly threaten it. This topic is probably best suited for another article, but it is definitely something worth keeping an eye on – and will most likely only bolster Germany’s resolve to protect Iran.

Either way, Germany and China have both agreed to stick to the Iran deal. Think for a second what this means: John Bolton openly warned European companies and countries against continuing business with Iran, stating that they could be targeted by sanctions. The newly appointed ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, alsoimmediately warned Germany directly that German companies must halt their business activities with Tehran or face sanctions. The German-Chinese announcement also came just after Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, issueda set of demands of its own, stating that the Europeans also could not be trusted.

Germany and China have essentially given the US the political middle finger in response, and arguably kowtowed to Iranian interests instead.

German-Russian relations to continue

Not too long ago, the US also warned Germany that sanctions may also target the German-Russia pipeline known as the Nord Stream 2 Project. If you ever needed proof that the underlying reasons for US-led wars were driven by money and natural gas, this is it. Why prevent Germany and Russia from working on this monumental project? Germany needs the gas, and Russia, relatively close-by, can supply it.

Despite the fact that the two countries continue to hold a number of disputes (including sanctions that continue to target Russia), Merkel’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin demonstrates that it is still possible to meet with one’s counterpart and discuss those issues amicably, an idea that seems almost completely lost on the current Trump administration.

“If you want to solve problems, you have to talk to each other,” Merkel said alongside Putin midway through the talks.

One Russian presidential aide reportedly suggested that the meeting went ahead because the two world leaders now found themselves on the same page, stating that “when opinions coincide, then countries at the very least become a bit closer to one another.”

According to a senior German official with knowledge of the chancellery’s strategy, rapprochement with Russia is now a core policy objective in Berlin. Polls are already suggesting that Germans trust Russia under Putin more than they trust the United States under Trump. That is some amazing 4D chess President Trump is playing

It is also worth noting that Germany did not participate in Trump, Macron, and Theresa May’s grandiose attack on Syria in April this year. Perhaps Germany is seeing less and less in common with the US, and has less of an intention of waging war to see its interests met, unlike the US, which apparently sees violence as the logical solution to all its problems.

Not to mention that – agitating Germany even further – in a recent cabinet meeting in Washington attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump singled out Germany as a country not contributing enough, all the while warning that countries allegedly not paying their dues will be “dealt with.”

Sheez. It should be no wonder that in this context, Germany has been secretly building a European Army of its own, already announcing the integration of its armed forces with Romania and the Czech Republic, baby steps to creating a European army under German leadership.

***

Russia ready to ditch dollar in favor of euro in foreign trade – finance ministe

May 24, 2018

Settlements in US currency could be dropped by Russia in favor of the euro if the EU takes a stand against the latest US sanctions on Moscow, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“As we see, restrictions imposed by the American partners are of an extraterritorial nature. The possibility of switching from the US dollar to the euro in settlements depends on Europe’s stance toward Washington’s position,” said Siluanov, who is also Russia’s first deputy prime minister.

The EU initially supported Washington’s sanctions against Moscow, but has recently criticized US President Donald Trump’s policy of imposing trade restrictions on other countries. The EU was also hit by the introduction of US import duties on steel and aluminum. The situation escalated even more after the US withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran.

“If our European partners declare their position unequivocally, we could definitely see a way to use the European common currency for financial settlements, such as payments for goods and services, which today are often subject to restrictions,”Siluanov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Siluanov added that Russia is already developing settlements in national currencies with its trading partners.

***

TheGuardian

Brazilian president sends in army as truck protest paralyzes country

São Paulo, the biggest city in South America, in state of emergency over fuel shortages while markets run out of food

May 25, 2018

Brazilian truck drivers partially block the Washington Luiz road (BR-040) during the fifth day of their nationwide strike over rising fuel costs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday. Photograph: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images

Brazil’s conservative president Michel Temer has ordered the army and federal police to clear highways blockaded by striking truck drivers after a protest over soaring fuel prices entered its fifth day.

The blockades have paralysed much of the country’s economy and prompted São Paulo, the biggest city in South America, to declare a state of emergency over fuel shortages.

“I have actioned the federal security forces to unblock highways and I am asking governors to do the same,” Temer said in a televised address on Friday. “We will not let the population do without its primary needs.”

The protests began over fuel prices but have been further stoked by widespread anger over repeated graft scandals involving prominent politicians – including Temer himself.

In São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, supermarkets and restaurants are running low on supplies. Some factories have shut down, bus services been reduced and even the Refugees World Cup, scheduled to take place in São Paulo on Saturday, has been cancelled.

The Folha de S Paulo newspaper site reported that 11 airports including one in the capital city Brasília have run out of fuel, and long queues have built up at gas stations around the country.

Behind the scenes, the army – already embroiled in a controversial operation against gang violence in Rio de Janeiro state – is concerned it might not have enough fuel to break the strike, the G1 news site reported.

“It is a difficult, delicate mission,” said reserve Gen Augusto Heleno Pereira, who commanded Brazil’s UN military force in Haiti. “The truck driver is a sympathetic figure … we hope there will be negotiation and there will be a deal and that they won’t offer resistance.”

The government appeared to believe it had resolved the crisis, but many drivers were unsatisfied with the deal. One of the main unions, known in Portuguese as Abcam and representing 600,000 truck drivers, walked out of the negotiations.

“We will not go back to work until our demands are met,” said truck driver José Cicero Rodrigues, speaking by telephone from a protest at Santos, Brazil’s biggest port near São Paulo.

Brazil’s federal highway police said that highways continued to be blocked on Friday but would not confirm how many. Local media reported that security forces will be able to enter trucks and remove them from the highways, and the decree is due to come into effect on Friday.

Following Temer’s decree the Abcam union said it was telling its members to stop blocking highways, but continue demonstrating peacefully.

“We have already shown our strength to the government,” the union said in a statement on its website.

Ahead of yesterday’s agreement, Brazilian media reported that some congressmen were fleeing Brasilia to return to their home states before the fuel ran out. Eunício Oliveira, the Senate president who flew back to his home state of Ceará in the North East, was forced to fly straight back to Brasília after a wave of criticism.

Videos circulating on WhatsApp showed truck drivers enjoying barbecues on blocked highways and pictures of trucks covered in Brazil flags and banners reading “stop with the thieving or we’ll stop the country”.

On Friday striking school bus drivers paraded down São Paulo’s landmark Paulista Avenue in a cacophony of blaring horns. Drivers drew a direct link between their own increased fuel costs and the vast sums of money that politicians of all parties have been accused of stealing.

“Nobody can stand any more. This is absurd, so much stealing, so much thieving and we have to pay the bill,” said Anderson Barbosa, 41. “Brazil is indignant.”

***

The Guardian

'The Mediterranean diet is gone': region's children are fattest in Europe

The diet Greece, Spain and Italy are famous for - rich in fruit, vegetables, fish and olive oil – is supposedly the healthiest in the world, but obesity is rocketing

May 24, 2018

The Mediterranean diet is said to be the healthiest in the world. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

For kids in Greece, Spain and Italy, the Mediterranean diet is dead, according to the World Health Organisation, which says that children in Sweden are more likely to eat fish, olive oil and tomatoes than those in southern Europe.

In Cyprus, a phenomenal 43% of boys and girls aged nine are either overweight or obese. Greece, Spain and Italy also have rates of over 40%. The Mediterranean countries which gave their name to the famous diet that is supposed to be the healthiest in the world have children with Europe’s biggest weight problem.

Sweets, junk food and sugary drinks have displaced the traditional diet based on fruit and vegetables, fish and olive oil, said Dr Joao Breda, head of the WHO European office for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.

“The Mediterranean diet for the children in these countries is gone,” he said at the European Congress on Obesity in Vienna. “There is no Mediterranean diet any more. Those who are close to the Mediterranean diet are the Swedish kids. The Mediterranean diet is gone and we need to recover it.”

Children in southern Europe are eating few fruit and vegetables and drinking a lot of sugary colas and other sweet beverages, said Breda. They snack. They eat sweets. They consume too much salt, sugar and fat in their food. And they hardly move. “Physical inactivity is one of the issues that is more significant in the southern European countries,” he said. “A man in Crete in the 60s would need 3,500 calories because he was going up and down the mountain.”

The data comes from the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative of the WHO’s European region, which has been running since 2008 and now involves more than 40 countries that submit weight and height data for their children. The latest figures come from data collected between 2015 and 2017. “It is very high quality data,” said Breda.

The countries with the lowest levels of child obesity are Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan – but those are all undergoing a “nutrition transition”, moving towards a western diet which may change the picture. Children in Tajikistan already consume large quantities of sugary soft drinks.

France, Norway, Ireland, Latvia and Denmark also have low rates, ranging from 5% to 9%. The UK does not contribute data to the study, but about one in three children are overweight or obese when they leave primary school at the age of 11.

But the good news is that the Mediterranean countries are addressing the problem and having some success is bringing their childhood obesity rates down. At least three-quarters of Italy’s children are now eating fruit every day or most days, for instance. “There is progress,” said Breda. “They recognise there is a problem and they are trying to do something.”

***

Until next keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

“He broke the whole support of bread.”
(Psalm 105:16)