Russian navy to hold drills off Syria as Idlib offensive looms
8/30/2018, 2:17:25 PMRussia will begin a major naval exercise in the Mediterranean on Saturday, the Ministry of Defense announced, a move the Kremlin said was justified by a failure to deal with militants in Syria's Idlib province. ✔ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Moscow, Russia August 30, 2018 ✔ REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov The ‘Marshal Ustinov’ missile cruiser would lead the drills ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Corbyn claims NATO founded to 'promote Cold War with Soviet Union' in 2014 video, is he right?
8/30/2018, 3:14:36 PMLabour's Jeremy Corbyn suggests “NATO was founded in order to promote a Cold War with the Soviet Union,” in a 2014 video that has surfaced on social media, prompting fierce debate about the validity of such claims - is he right? ✔ https://t.co/GfYBfmrMhc Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 29, 2018 In the unedited version of Corbyn’s speech available on Youtube, the now Labour-leader explains that the creation of NATO, and the subsequent founding of the ‘Warsaw Pact’ in 1955, has meant 60 years of a ludicrous arms race which cost us all billions of pounds and dollars and damaged the civil liberties of people all over the world
Grassroots leaders provide the best hope to a troubled world
8/30/2018, 3:14:23 PMAmid cruelty and suffering, there are heroes, says Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who steps down on September 1st ✔ That is what discrimination and deprivation look like ✔ In his 25-year diplomatic career, Prince Zeid helped establish the International Criminal Court, produced oversight policies for UN peacekeeping troops and worked on counter-nuclear terrorism following 9/11
Russia warns US not to ‘play with fire’ in Syria – Lavrov
8/30/2018, 2:35:38 PMRussia’s foreign minister is the latest official to warn the US against using a possible chemical weapons provocation to justify a new strike against Syrian forces. He said Moscow warned the West not to play with fire in Syria. ✔ Amid international tensions, Russia has launched a massive naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea, which involves 25 ships and 30 aircraft, including Tu-160 strategic bombers ✔ Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you
Two Syrian towns once lived peacefully alongside neighbors. Three years under siege changed everything
8/30/2018, 3:02:31 PMWhen the twin Shiite towns of Fuah and Kfarya were evacuated last month, it was the end result of a deal emblematic of the cynical calculus employed by all sides in Syria’s devastating civil war, where entire populations have been held hostage as bargaining chips or uprooted from their homes. ✔ Evacuations had been promised before, only to be called off ✔ The deal was known as the Four Towns Agreement ✔ But Mohammad Hassan Taqi, a Fuah resident who had headed the towns’ crisis committee, was less certain ✔ We’ll get the towns back, but living there will be almost impossible, he said
UN Syria envoy floats idea of evacuating Idlib civilians
8/30/2018, 3:39:59 PMGENEVA (AP) — Fearing a military offensive, the U.N. envoy for Syria proposed Thursday that civilians holed up in the rebel-held region of Idlib could evacuate to government areas ✔ GENEVA (AP) Fearing a military offensive, the U.N ✔ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday warned of the growing risk of a humanitarian catastrophe, and called for restraint ✔ The drills were announced after NATO reported a Russian naval buildup in the Mediterranean
Russia says it will hold war games this week
8/30/2018, 3:37:26 PMNATO says the Russian navy is building up its presence in the Mediterranean Sea amid growing tensions over the war in Syria. Russia has provided crucial military support for Syrian government forces, which are expected to mount an offensive in the northern Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the country.
Russia to hold major drills in Mediterranean off Syria as UN warns of 'perfect storm'
8/30/2018, 2:37:35 PMRussia has announced it will hold a week-long military drill in the Mediterranean off the coast of Syria, as the UN warned a “perfect storm” was brewing in the battle for the country’s last rebel stronghold. ✔ Some 2.7 million people are living in Idlib under the control of several thousand jihadists and other more moderate rebels ✔ While Turkey actively sponsors rebel forces in Idlib, its influence over HTS is less clear and experts warned the chances of success were slim
Barrie Dunsmore, globe-trotting ABC News correspondent, dies at 79
8/30/2018, 2:06:00 PMRaised in poverty in Canada, he went on to report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the fall of the Berlin Wall. ✔ Mr. Dunsmore later recalled that, when he was a child, his family lived in a shack heated by a wood stove, with frost on the windows that was two inches thick from mid-December through March, before upgrading to a home with a furnace and electric stove
AP Explains: The looming, final battle for Syria's rebels
8/30/2018, 12:15:22 PMBEIRUT (AP) — In a corner of northwestern Syria packed with nearly 3 million people, the government and its opponents are preparing for a final, bloody showdown. The ✔ BEIRUT (AP) In a corner of northwestern Syria packed with nearly 3 million people, the government and its opponents are preparing for a final, bloody showdown ✔ As government forces advanced, they offered residents and one-time opponents the choice either to reconcile with Assad's rule or board buses for Idlib, where al-Qaida-linked groups have eclipsed the moderate opposition
China hits back at Trump’s ‘absurd logic’ on N. Korea denuclearization
8/30/2018, 1:37:42 PMChina has slammed US President Donald Trump’s “absurd logic” in blaming Beijing for an apparent delay in Washington’s denuclearization talks with North Korea. It follows Trump accusing China of “pressuring” Pyongyang. ✔ Pressure has been mounting on Trump to explain why his much-vaunted talks with North Korea in June have yet to deliver any results, with Pyongyang failing to show any concrete steps towards its promise of denuclearizing the region ✔ Trump then seemed to take a more amicable tone as he said that – despite North Korea’s current failure to return concessions – there is no reason right now to spend loads of money on US military exercises with South Korea
I'm a revolutionary, not a criminal, Congolese warlord tells ICC
8/30/2018, 3:36:54 PMBosco Ntaganda faces 30 years in jail for alleged war crimes committed in DRC ✔ The army was a family … The ‘children’ in the family does not mean that they are children, Ntaganda’s lawyer, Stephane Bourgon, said ✔ The maximum sentence for the crimes he is charged with would be 30 years; the prospect of a jail term served quietly in a European country was preferable to the alternative under Congolese or Rwandan authorities or going on the run, according to some analysts ✔ I truly felt the need to surrender voluntarily and face the charges against me, he said
Donald Trump lashes out at China of damaging his bromance with Kim Jong-un
8/30/2018, 12:08:13 PMDONALD Trump has accused China of undermining his new relationship North Korea and efforts to persuade Kim Jong-un to give up his nuclear weapons. The US president and the North Korean leader Kim J… ✔ If he does, they will be far bigger than ever before ✔ The US president ublicly acknowledged for the first time efforts in dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear programme had stalled since his summit with Kim Jong-un ✔ He partly blamed China for not putting enough pressure on North Korea - due to trade tensions with the US - and said the trip could be on hold until that is resolved
De Mistura warns of 'perfect storm' over Syria's Idlib
8/30/2018, 12:35:41 PMFears are rising that Syria, backed by Russia, is mobilising for a military offensive to retake last rebel-held enclave. ✔ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments to reporters on a conference call while answering a question about planned Russian naval drills in the Mediterranean, an exercise he said was justified due to the difficult situation in Syria ✔ Syria’s war: Attack on Idlib could endanger millions of IDPs
It's time for realism in EU-Russia ties: France's Macron
8/30/2018, 1:17:34 PMFrench President Emmanuel Macron urged the European Union on Thursday to modernize its post-Cold War ties with Russia and pursue "strategic relations" with Turkey as well as other close neighbors, including in defense matters. ✔ CRIMEA It’s not about forgetting the last few years, that wouldn’t be right, but simply a realistic means .. ✔ to cooperate more deeply, Macron said, adding that Russia would need to signal advances on issues including the Ukrainian peace process ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Former Congolese military leader: I am not 'the Terminator'
8/30/2018, 12:20:50 PMA former Congo military leader on trial for charges ranging from murder and rape to conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery told judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday that he was "a revolutionary, but not a criminal”. ✔ But his defense has insisted Ntaganda was a loyal and disciplined military commander whose involvement in events caused fewer victims instead of more ✔ The UPC commander took measures to prevent crimes and punish perpetrators, defense lawyer Stephane Bourgon said ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Iranian in name only: Dual nationals hide Iran ties to avoid US sanctions
8/30/2018, 2:09:25 PMAs Washington tightens US sanctions on Iran and its citizens, Iranians are increasingly acquiring other citizenships and obscuring any ties to their homeland that might cause them to run afoul of the restrictive US measures. ✔ Sadr received a US Green Card in 2004 based on his asylum claims ✔ For Iranians working or trading outside of Iran, we are always on the lookout for residency or nationality in other countries ✔ Soon after his arrest on money laundering and other charges, Malta froze Pilatus Bank’s operationsand Sadr was forced to step down
Jordan to lead fundraising for U.N. Palestinian agency after U.S. cuts
8/30/2018, 2:27:37 PMJordan said on Thursday it would lead a campaign to raise funds for the U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees, to help it survive after the United States cut its funding. ✔ The agency was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israel war, in the wake of the exodus of around 700,000 refugees who fled or were driven out of Israel on its founding as a state ✔ UNRWA now looks after more than 5 million descendants of those original refugees, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Thursday Morning Briefing
8/30/2018, 1:02:38 PMVenezuela's new cryptocurrency is nowhere to be found, an online army of sense an opportunity to renew pressure on Tesla's Elon Musk and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un revives a decades-old railway dream. ✔ World A view of Alqueva reservoir, the largest artificial lake in the EU, near Alqueva, Portugal, August 2, 2018 ✔ Reuters’ Jonathan Barrett reports from South Australia ✔ Grain trains bring relief to Australian farmers Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Ebola outbreak in DRC has ‘the potential to be the worst ever seen’
8/30/2018, 1:10:24 PMThe International Rescue Committee, an agency that responds to humanitarian crises fears it will trump the pandemic of 2014, which killed 11,000 and decimated West Africa. ✔ Genetic analysis has confirmed the virus strain in this latest outbreak is the Zaire strain, the same as the one earlier this summer ✔ Emile Ouamouno, known more commonly as Patient Zero, may have contracted the deadly virus by playing with bats in a hollow tree, a study suggested ✔ Hope exists though, after an experimental vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV, protected nearly 6,000 people
Russian FM Lavrov Warns West 'Don't Obstruct Anti-terror Ops' as Idlib Assault 'Hours Away'
8/30/2018, 2:42:15 PMRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Lavrov has warned the West not to interfere in Syrian and Russian forces engaged in antiterror actions in the northwest province of Idlib: "I hope our Western partners will not give in to [rebel] provocations and will not obstruct an antiterror operation," he said. ✔ Meanwhile, NATO has confirmed the large Russian battleship and naval presence off Syria's coast, and has called on all external powers to exercise restraint ; and a United Nations spokesman has warned that up to 800,000 people could be displaced and that the number of people who are in need of humanitarian assistance
Opinion | Iraqi terrorist turned politician told U.S. interrogators he worked with Iran to kill Americans
8/30/2018, 3:15:16 PMNewly released interrogation reports shed new light on an old foe of the United States. ✔ He identified many more Shiite militia leaders and commanders from photographs supplied by the Americans ✔ But Khazali’s return to prominence is not just an Iraqi issue ✔ It’s well past time for the United States to confront Iran’s use of proxies including Khazali to spread misery throughout the Middle East
'Hero' Syrian swimmer arrested by Greek police for helping migrants reach Lesbos
8/30/2018, 3:57:47 PMGreek police have charged a Syrian "hero" refugee, who was once hailed for saving people from a sinking boat in the Mediterranean, with helping migrants illegally enter the country. ✔ The following year Yusra, now a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, participated on the refugee team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Ms Mardini went on to win a scholarship studying economics and social sciences at Bard College in Berlin ✔ It now has the highest concentration of migrants in Greece, with the worst conditions in the camp of Moria where over 8,300 people live, according to UN figures - about triple the nominal capacity
We’re on a dangerous path: From fake news & fake porn to fake reality
8/30/2018, 12:08:55 PMDeepfake technology may be sold as a new form of entertainment yet has the potential to be used for darker purposes. ✔ ‘Deepfake’ porn should be criminalized under upskirting bill, analyst says https://t.co/5JjiNJGWWA RT UK (@RTUKnews) June 21, 2018 Creating fake hardcore porn to entertain internet users or embarrass a celebrity is the thin end of the wedge ✔ This is of particular concern as the birth rates across developed countries are already low and decreasing further
The creators behind Amazon's 'Jack Ryan' update the classic fictional hero for the binge-watch generation
8/30/2018, 12:11:12 PMAfter a nearly four-year journey to the small screen, "Jack Ryan," Amazon's big-budget original series that updates the Tom Clancy's novel icon for the streaming generation, makes its debut. Creators Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland discuss what went into modernizing the classic hero. ✔ The producers noted that a CIA liaison who was working for the public relations department at the time when the producers visited Langley, the agency’s headquarters in Virginia where the show did some filming, had two Jack Ryan movie posters in her office
Analysis | The Daily 202: Cuomo’s attacks on Cynthia Nixon in testy debate betray the fears of the Democratic establishment
8/30/2018, 1:48:49 PMN.Y. governor rips into “Sex and the City” star, even though polls show him up more than 30 points. ✔ … The plan got far enough along that Mr. Cohen relays in [a] recorded conversation that he had discussed paying for all the information from American Media with the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg ✔ pic.twitter.com/dQnDgswCj5 Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 29, 2018 More than 20,000 people participated in Spain's annual tomato fight: And The Post studied baseball cliches by analyzing nearly 7,000 media interviews of MLB players and managers:
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