The FBI has issued an alert to Chicago police warning that nearly three dozen street gangs may have struck an agreement to shoot any officer seen with their gun drawn in public “on-site,” according to a local news report.
FBI officials in Chicago recently issued a “situational information report” to Chicago law enforcement, pointing to a possible multi-gang pact to gun down officers in the streets, a local ABC affiliate reported on Monday.
“Members of these gang factions have been actively searching for, and filming, police officers in performance of their official duties,” the FBI alert said. “The purpose of which is to catch on film an officer drawing his/her weapon on any subject and the subsequent 'shoot on-site' of said officer, in order to garner national media attention.”
The alliance includes well-known groups such as the Latin Kings and the Vice Lords, as well as more obscure gangs, including the Almighty Black P. Stone Nation and its Islamist breakoff faction, known as El Rukn (Arabic for “the pillar”). All of them belong to a pre-existing gang alliance, the People Nation.
While the FBI document, dated August 26, noted the alert was sourced from “a contact whose reporting is limited and whose reliability can’t be determined” – suggesting it may have come from a police source, a witness in an ongoing case or from information gleaned through law enforcement surveillance – the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), David Brown, said officers are currently facing a “sense of lawlessness” in the city.
“I think it's bigger than a suggestion,” said Brown, who declined to comment on the FBI alert directly, but added “I think 51 officers being shot at or shot in one year, I think that quadruples any previous year in Chicago's history. So I think it's more than a suggestion that people are seeking to do harm to cops.”
In a separate statement provided to the ABC affiliate, the CPD said it was aware of threat posed by street gangs and that it takes all threats against officers seriously, adding that it had taken all proper precautions to keep them safe.
The alleged formation of the street gang supergroup comes as Chicago sees a spike in violent crime, with 55 people shot, 10 of them fatally, over last weekend alone, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The weekend prior similarly saw 66 shot, five of which were killed. The surge in shootings also comes amid a wave of demonstrations and unrest over recent police shootings, namely that of George Floyd in Minnesota and Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, which in Chicago have frequently escalated to riots, looting and vandalism.
US President Donald Trump crafted a bizarre analogy while attempting to explain police shootings in golf terms, comparing the use of deadly force by some officers under pressure to missing an easy putt in a golf tournament.
“The police are under siege... they can do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do, and one bad apple or a choker... Shooting a guy in the back many times – couldn’t you have done something different, couldn’t you have wrestled him?” Trump told Fox’s Laura Ingraham in an interview on Monday night, adding:
But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot putt...
Trump starts comparing police shootings to golfers missing putts, but Laura Ingraham cuts him off because she realizes how bad it sounds pic.twitter.com/7oDnfUIaRf
Ingrahm rushed to cut in, saying “You're not comparing it to golf,” and suggesting the media would not react well to the analogy.
“I'm saying people choke. People choke. And people are bad people. You have both. You have some bad people, and they choke,” Trump replied.
You could be a police officer for 15 years and all of a sudden you're confronted. You've got a quarter of a second to make a decision. If you don't make the decision, and you're wrong, you're dead. People choke under those circumstances, and they make a bad decision.
Australian Facebook users may soon find themselves unable to share news, the social media giant has warned, citing a new law which has pitted Big Tech firms against major media outlets demanding a cut of their revenue.
The draft regulation, proposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), would mandate that platforms such as Facebook and Google give news organizations a piece of their digital marketing earnings. While supporters of the law argue the platforms unduly benefit from hosting news content, Facebook insists the ACCC “misunderstands the dynamics of the internet,” and that the regulation would force the company to bar Australian users from sharing news stories.
“The ACCC presumes that Facebook benefits most in its relationship with publishers, when in fact the reverse is true. News represents a fraction of what people see in their News Feed and is not a significant source of revenue for us,” Will Easton, the managing director for Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement on Monday.
Assuming this draft code becomes law, we will reluctantly stop allowing publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram. This is not our first choice – it is our last.
The proposed tech regulation, the “News Media Bargaining Code,” followed an 18-month probe by the ACCC, which found that much of the Australian news sector is reliant on Google and Facebook for traffic, but has little sway or bargaining power over the massive firms. Though the inquiry found the two platforms derive little ad revenue from news content, it revealed that more than one-third of Facebook users in the country use the website to access news, proposing that media outlets and tech firms negotiate a ‘fair price’ for hosting that material.
Facebook, however, argues that it already rewards news organizations immensely, saying the platform had “sent 2.3 billion clicks from Facebook’s News Feed back to Australian news websites at no charge” between January and May 2020, which it added was worth some $200 million (AUD) in ad revenue.
The new law would also require that tech firms give media outlets 28 days notice before making any changes to their algorithms that could harm the news business, including the down-ranking of particular publishers in searches. Alongside Facebook, Google has also come out harshly against the regulation, taking aim at the algorithm requirement in particular.
Sharing that information “would provide an unfair advantage to news businesses and help them feature more prominently in organic search results at the expense of other businesses, creators, and website owners,” said Mel Silva, the managing director for Google Australia and New Zealand.
Asked in July whether the law would mean Australian news is struck from Google services, Silva said: “All options are on the table.”
Similar efforts in Spain and Germany have run into trouble, prompting Google News to remove Spanish publishers from its service globally and leading to a steep drop in readership, according to one study. Meanwhile, in 2014 a major publishing house in Germany, Axel Springer, attempted to bar Google from featuring snippets of its articles over similar concerns about ad revenue, however reversed the move after traffic to its sites plummeted.
While the new Australian bargaining code has yet to be enacted, with the ACCC issuing a draft of the law in July, a consultation on the proposal took place last Friday, and legislation is expected to come soon in the Australian Parliament, despite opposition from major tech firms.
Australian Facebook users may soon find themselves unable to share news, the social media giant has warned, citing a new law which has pitted Big Tech firms against major media outlets demanding a cut of their revenue.
The draft regulation, proposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), would mandate that platforms such as Facebook and Google give news organizations a piece of their digital marketing earnings. While supporters of the law argue the platforms unduly benefit from hosting news content, Facebook insists the ACCC “misunderstands the dynamics of the internet,” and that the regulation would force the company to bar Australian users from sharing news stories.
“The ACCC presumes that Facebook benefits most in its relationship with publishers, when in fact the reverse is true. News represents a fraction of what people see in their News Feed and is not a significant source of revenue for us,” Will Easton, the managing director for Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement on Monday.
Assuming this draft code becomes law, we will reluctantly stop allowing publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instagram. This is not our first choice – it is our last.
The proposed tech regulation, the “News Media Bargaining Code,” followed an 18-month probe by the ACCC, which found that much of the Australian news sector is reliant on Google and Facebook for traffic, but has little sway or bargaining power over the massive firms. Though the inquiry found the two platforms derive little ad revenue from news content, it revealed that more than one-third of Facebook users in the country use the website to access news, proposing that media outlets and tech firms negotiate a ‘fair price’ for hosting that material.
Facebook, however, argues that it already rewards news organizations immensely, saying the platform had “sent 2.3 billion clicks from Facebook’s News Feed back to Australian news websites at no charge” between January and May 2020, which it added was worth some $200 million (AUD) in ad revenue.
The new law would also require that tech firms give media outlets 28 days notice before making any changes to their algorithms that could harm the news business, including the down-ranking of particular publishers in searches. Alongside Facebook, Google has also come out harshly against the regulation, taking aim at the algorithm requirement in particular.
Sharing that information “would provide an unfair advantage to news businesses and help them feature more prominently in organic search results at the expense of other businesses, creators, and website owners,” said Mel Silva, the managing director for Google Australia and New Zealand.
Asked in July whether the law would mean Australian news is struck from Google services, Silva said: “All options are on the table.”
Similar efforts in Spain and Germany have run into trouble, prompting Google News to remove Spanish publishers from its service globally and leading to a steep drop in readership, according to one study. Meanwhile, in 2014 a major publishing house in Germany, Axel Springer, attempted to bar Google from featuring snippets of its articles over similar concerns about ad revenue, however reversed the move after traffic to its sites plummeted.
While the new Australian bargaining code has yet to be enacted, with the ACCC issuing a draft of the law in July, a consultation on the proposal took place last Friday, and legislation is expected to come soon in the Australian Parliament, despite opposition from major tech firms.
Fed up with decades of two-party rule, hundreds of thousands of Americans tuned in for the People’s Convention, where they voted to form a new political alternative unbeholden to corporate power or the military-industrial complex.
The event drew more than 400,000 viewers to its livestream on Sunday, organizers said. It continued to trend on Twitter through more than 5 hours of speeches that culminated in a vote to create a “major new corporate-free political party in America.”
Among the speakers at the convention were several disgruntled Democrats, from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 national co-chair Nina Turner to a candidate in this year’s primaries, Marianne Williamson. The roster of speakers also included former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, comedian Jimmy Dore, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, who summed up the spirit of the convention in a fiery address.
“There is only one choice in this election, and that is the consolidation of oligarchic power under Donald Trump, or the consolidation of oligarchic power under Joe Biden,” said Hedges, who also hosts RT's 'On Contact.' “The oligarchs with Trump or Biden will win again, and we will lose.”
Only one thing matters to the oligarchs, it is not democracy, it is not truth, it is not the consent of the governed, it is not income inequality, it is not the surveillance state, it is not endless war… it is the primacy of corporate power, which has extinguished our democracy and left most of the working class and the working poor in misery.
The People’s Convention was held on the heels of the Republican and Democratic national conventions earlier this month, which event organizers said “erased the needs of poor and working people in a time of mounting national crisis.” It ended with a vote to create the People’s Party in 2021, in which some 99 percent of its 400,000 viewers took part.
Williamson, who made an unsuccessful bid for Democratic nominee in the 2020 race, slammed an economic system that for decades has stranded “millions of people without even a life vest,” concentrating massive amounts of wealth upward and leaving the American middle class “completely devastated.”
We have reverted to aristocracy; it is now a corporate aristocracy.
“It is health insurance companies, it is big pharmaceutical companies, it is big oil, it is food companies… and of course, it is the military industrial complex,” she said.
A former Ohio state senator and a senior figure in the Sanders campaign, Turner told the convention that “we are in a fight for our lives and for future generations,” adding “We don’t believe in the lies and the bribes and the contentment in a lousy peace,” quoting from a 1938 poem by Langston Hughs.
“How can we have peace in moments like this, when over 90 million of our sisters and brothers are either uninsured or underinsured?” Turner asked. “How can we have peace when on the streets of America right now, black lives have been reaching out, calling out the racism and the white supremacy and the bigotry of a system that was created for black lives to languish.”
How can we have peace when you got a Congress that goes on recess while millions of people are facing evictions from their homes?
“We need a third or fourth entity to step in. The lesser of two evils is still evil,” said Ventura, who was elected Minnesota governor on a third-party ticket in 1998 and has since been involved with the Libertarian and Green parties. Ventura has also hosted RT’s ‘Off the Grid’ (ending in 2015) and ‘The World According to Jesse.’
Harvard professor and social critic Dr. Cornel West also addressed the event, calling to “transform the American empire into a more democratic space,” while dubbing the two major parties the “neo-fascist” and “neo-liberal” wings of the “ruling class.”
“We are living in a moment of massive imperial meltdown, spiritual breakdown, and we need prophetic fight-back,” West said, arguing the new party would provide just that.
The Movement for a People’s Party, the organization behind the project, now says it is working to establish local branches around the US, which will “form the building blocks of state parties” and work through the long and often arduous process of securing ballot access. The group has set a lofty goal for the new anti-corporate outfit, hoping it will be “poised to sweep Congress and the White House” by the next election cycle in 2024.
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The militant group controlling the Palestinian enclave has said it reached an “understanding” with Tel Aviv that would help ease tensions in Gaza following weeks of hostilities as the region fights a Covid-19 outbreak.
An agreement has been reached to “contain the escalation” and halt Israel’s “aggression,” the group said in a statement on Monday, adding that the deal was mediated by a Qatari envoy, Mohammed al-Emadi. Hamas did not provide the exact details of the accord but said that both sides agreed to “restore calm”, adding that the deal would also facilitate a “number of projects” that would benefit Gaza and particularly help it cope with a coronavirus outbreak.
The development comes less than a week after the Palestinian territory confirmed four coronavirus cases in a local refugee camp and imposed a lockdown to contain the disease. The situation in the densely populated Palestinian enclave could be particularly disastrous since Gaza’s fragile healthcare system has suffered under a de-facto Israeli blockade for years and its only power plant was shut down some two weeks ago after Tel Aviv cut fuel supplies amid a spike in cross-border skirmishes.
Tensions around the strip have been running high in recent weeks due to escalating hostilities between Israel and Hamas. Palestinian militants launched incendiary balloons into Israeli territory igniting brushfires and occasionally launched some rockets as well.
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) retaliated with air strikes and used tanks to hit Hamas targets in the enclave. Israel has also left Gaza virtually without supplies after halting the flow of fuel into the enclave since mid-August and blocking the transfer of goods through the Kerem Shalom crossing around the same time. The Gaza fishing zone was closed as well.
Now, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) – an Israeli Defense Ministry unit coordinating civilian issues between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian authorities – confirmed that some of the restrictions would be lifted as part of the deal.
"Following efforts to calm the situation, and in light of security consultations led by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a decision was taken to resume the routine activity of the Kerem Shalom crossing, including the entry of fuel products, starting tomorrow [Tuesday],” COGAT said. The fishing zone will also be opened within 15 nautical miles.
Some media reports also suggested that the agreement could involve Israel facilitating the entry of medical goods into the Gaza Strip to help combat Covid-19, as well as allowing Qatar to send $30 million in financial aid to the enclave.
Still, Tel Aviv did not appear to be particularly keen on lifting the restrictions as COGAT said the decision would still be “tested on the ground” and, should Hamas fail to abide by its commitments, Israel “will act accordingly.”
Gantz also noted that Israel’s zero tolerance policy toward what he called “security violations” would continue and that Tel Aviv considers “a balloon … just as unacceptable as rockets.” He also put the blame for the health crisis in Gaza on the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, while expressing his hope that Hamas would somehow “take the security aspect away in order to fight corona[virus].”
Citing President Donald Trump’s supposed refusal to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse, the youth who shot three rioters in Wisconsin, some mainstream media reporters and Democrats argue there’s no need for them to disavow Antifa now.
During the Monday evening press conference at the White House, Trump said he was “looking” at what he described as a “an interesting situation,” when asked to condemn Rittenhouse.
“You saw the same tape as I saw and he was trying to get away from them, I guess, looks like. And he fell and then they very violently attacked him and it was something that we’re looking at right now, and it’s under investigation,” the president said.
Liberal journalist Aaron Rupar tweeted a video clip of the remarks, saying Trump “defended” Riittenhouse. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) was quick to point out that Rittenhouse was “charged with murder,” apparently oblivious to the difference between being charged and being found guilty in a court of law.
Yamiche Alcindor of PBS made the same insinuation as Rupar, only phrasing it as “Some will no doubt see that as Trump justifying Rittenhouse's actions.”
President Trump is now saying Kyle Rittenhouse might have been killed if he didn't shoot three people -- killing two. He said the Trump administration is looking at the case.
That was quite a statement.
Some will no doubt see that as Trump justifying Rittenhouse's actions.
Trump’s “refusal to condemn” and defense of supporters who allegedly shot rioters with paintballs in Portland were cited by MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin as argument that Republicans have no right to demand Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden “make specific statements on violence.”
Trump defended paintball-shooting supporters. Trump refused to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse. It doesn't seem like those on the right who want Joe Biden to make specific statements on violence should have those opinions amplified anymore.
The president himself took Biden to task for not condemning Antifa, the far-left militants behind the months-long unrest in Portland who actually murdered a Trump supporter over the weekend there. While Republicans tend to make no difference between Black Lives Matter and Antifa, Democrats deny Antifa exists at all.
Trump just publicly defended Kyle Rittenhouse. Please no more “both sides” false equivalencies. The violent right white supremacists with the backing of the President are the ones we all need to be worried about. Not the people insisting cops stop murdering Black folks.
Resistance activist Joshua Potash, meanwhile, argued there should be no “false equivalence” between “violent right white supremacists with the backing of the President” – presumably Rittenhouse – and “people insisting cops stop murdering Black folks,” presumably meaning either Antifa, the three men Rittenhouse shot, or both.
The trouble with this line of reasoning, however, is that there is not a single shred of evidence whatsoever that Rittenhouse was a “right white supremacist.” That hasn’t stopped prominent Democrats – such as Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) from making the accusation. She went so far as to describe the three men he shot as people who “assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives.”
Pressley doesn’t have to worry about getting sued for defamation, members of Congress apparently being above the law in that regard. Others were quick to backtrack on the “white supremacist” talk when they found out Rittenhouse was represented by the same attorney who won big payouts for Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann.
Before you know Kyle Rittenhouse is represented by Nick Sandmann’s lawyers:
Sandmann, who was also 17 at the time the mainstream media outlets described him as a racist who attacked peaceful protesters by standing still and smiling in a red MAGA hat in January 2019, won undisclosed payouts from the Washington Post and CNN, thanks in part to the efforts by Lin Wood, his attorney who has now joined Rittenhouse’s defense team.
White House adviser Jared Kushner urged Palestinians to make their peace with the newly official alliance between the UAE and Israel – whose leadership refers to its ancient religious texts to justify its own land grabs.
Kushner made the somewhat ironic statement after arriving in the UAE on Monday on board a passenger jet completing the first-ever direct flight from Israel. The route was officially established as part of the Abraham Accords between the two countries and the US earlier this month. The decision was hailed by Washington and its allies as “historic,” though Palestine and its allies have deemed it a betrayal by their erstwhile Arab brethren.
This hasn’t stopped Kushner from continuing to promote it. Donald Trump’s son-in-law told reporters that Palestinians should know peace would be “ready for them…as soon as they are ready to embrace it,” urging the occupied population to accept the help of “the whole region” in getting an economic boost.
We can’t want peace more than they want peace…They can’t be stuck in the past.
The UAE has defended its decision to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel by pointing out that the landmark agreement had postponed Israel’s official annexation of the Jewish-only settlements currently honeycombing the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. However, Palestinians have argued that such a move would merely legitimize the status quo – since the land's occupation continues with Tel Aviv’s backing.
The Palestinian Authority responded to the Abraham Accords with scorn, recalling its ambassador from Abu Dhabi and declaring the agreement belonged in the “garbage can of history.”
“Jerusalem is not for sale,” PA President Mahmoud Abbas reminded the US. The Palestinians ended diplomatic relations with Washington after the Trump administration moved its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem in 2017 and have categorically dismissed all overtures since as overwhelmingly favoring Israel.
Kushner also thanked Saudi Arabia on Monday for allowing the UAE-Israel flight to pass through Saudi airspace. While Israel and Saudi Arabia have not yet established official diplomatic relations, the two nations have grown quite cozy, and Israeli officials have gone on the record with their expectations that other Arab nations will soon follow Abu Dhabi’s lead in establishing official relations with Tel Aviv.
Such a statement remains controversial, as Islamic doctrine suggests their primary loyalties should be to the Muslim community (umma). Turkey has considered suspending diplomatic ties with the UAE over its befriending Israel, declaring history would never forgive the country’s “hypocritical behavior.” However, while Turkey is majority-Muslim, it also has diplomatic and trade ties with Israel.
Despite the Abraham Accords supposedly putting Israel’s annexation of the West Bank on hold, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed shortly after the agreement was signed that recognizing Tel Aviv’s “sovereignty” over Judea and Samaria – parts of the Palestinian West Bank – remains “on the table.”
The Zionist movement laid claim to what is now Israel starting in the late 19th century based on biblical claims suggesting the land was promised to them thousands of years ago. The modern state of Israel was established in 1948, leading to decades of conflict between the area's Jewish and Arab populations as many of the latter were forcibly expelled.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced pardons for 110 opposition lawmakers currently facing charges, saying this should promote democracy in the country currently under US sanctions and demands for regime change.
The intent of the pardons is to “promote national reconciliation and the search for peace,” Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez announced on Monday in Caracas.
The measure was proposed by the Commission for Truth, Justice and Peace and seeks to strengthen democracy and “open channels of political action” within the framework of the Venezuelan Constitution, Rodriguez added.
The government in Caracas is calling for national unity to face the “criminal blockade” by the US and the Covid-19 pandemic, urging the opposition to seek peaceful coexistence through “constitutional, electoral and peaceful ways.”
Among the pardoned lawmakers are Freddy Guevara, Freddy Superlano, Tomas Guanipa, Miguel Pizarro, Americo de Grazia, Simon Calzadilla and Henry Ramos Allup, who had been stripped of parliamentary immunity. The list includes both opposition politicians who had fled Venezuela and those who have been arrested, such as Gilber Caro and Renzo Prieto.
The recipients will be able to participate in the December 6 parliamentary elections if they so choose, Rodriguez added.
Venezuela has been under US sanctions since January 2019, when opposition politician Juan Guaido declared himself “interim president” and denounced Maduro as illegitimate. Though Washington and a number of its allies have recognized Guaido, all of his attempts to seize power in Caracas – including an attempted military coup – have failed.
Cleaning floating plastic from the sea is a “lost cause” and trying to remove it can actually do more harm than good, new research suggests. Instead, clean-up efforts should focus on rubbish washed ashore.
Trying to clean up plastic pollution from the open seas is a “waste of time and resources,” researchers with the Norwegian-based SALT company have concluded.
“The rubbish in the sea is a lost cause, there is no point in cleaning it up,” the team said in a newly released research paper.
Assorted plastic, that is floating around the seas is way too scattered to be easily removed, the researchers argued. Attempting to trawl it out is not only disproportionately costly and time-consuming, but it can also do more harm than good. Trawling large areas will catch “too much fish and wildlife compared with the amount of rubbish,” the research team noted.
“In addition, rubbish is often found in marine life and organic material that is important for the ecosystems and animals that live there. In the worst case, we risk doing more harm than good by trawling over the areas,” lead author of the research paper Jannike Falk-Andersson told broadcaster NRK.
Instead of wasting time and recourses on the high seas clean-ups, people should focus on hand-picking trash washed ashore, which is a far more gentle and effective method.
“There, you pick one thing at a time. You do not drag large objects across the beach that kills everything it comes across, in an attempt to clean up,” Falk-Andersson explained.
The research has been praised by Norway’s Climate and Environment Minister Sveinung Rotevatn, who, at the same time, described the plastic pollution as a rapidly escalating problem that must be tackled with a broad international effort.
“It is very good that a critical spotlight is placed on clearing plastic in the sea. We have long pointed out that cleaning in the sea areas starts at the wrong end and that there is a risk of damage to life in the sea when trawling for plastic,” Rotevatn told NRK.
Over the past years, plastic pollution has become one of the main environmental problems with the amount of waste floating around the oceans growing at alarming rates. According to various estimates, some 15 tons of plastic gets into the planet’s seas every minute.
Apart from clogging-up waterways and forming whole floating islands, like the notorious Great Pacific garbage patch, plastic poses a great danger to wildlife. Animals get entangled in plastic debris, choke on it and get their stomachs clogged up so much they become unable able to consume and digest actual food. Small plastic particles, the so-called microplastics, accumulate in the bodies and tissues of various organisms, and ultimately, returns to the sender – humans – in the seafood we consume.
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A joint US-Israeli delegation has made the first-ever direct commercial flight between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi. Days earlier, the UAE canceled a law banning any dealings with Israel.
The senior officials flew on a plane of Israel’s flag carrier, El Al to further the normalization deal, which was signed by Israel and the UAE earlier this month with the US as an intermediary.
The American side of the delegation includes President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz and envoy for Iran Brian Hook. The Israeli government has sent the national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat and senior cabinet members, who will meet their Emirati counterparts during the short visit.
Earlier on Saturday, the UAE nullified a decades-old law prohibiting any form of cooperation with Israel and its citizens. A boycott of the Jewish state was in place there ever since the UAE’s creation as a federation of monarchies in the early 1970s
Saudi Arabia allowed the plane to fly through its airspace, marking its approval of the normalization deal. The UAE is the third Arab country after Egypt and Jordan, and the only Gulf monarchy, to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel. Saudi Arabia has its own policies on boycotting Israel. Regular flights between Israel and the UAE will require Saudi clearance to use its airspace to be commercially viable.
Screenshot from www.flightradar24.com
Relations between Israel and the Gulf nations, including the UAE, have been growing increasingly cooperative over the years, with mutual hostility towards Iran playing a crucial part for the rapprochement. The deal that formalized the new reality was met with anger in some Arab nations like Turkey, which accused the UAE of betraying the Palestinian people for selfish interests.
The agreement said Israel would halt the annexation of occupied Palestinian lands, a move vocally advocated by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The PM, however, said that his annexation plans have not been changed by the deal.
Rising UFC star Khamzat Chimaev admitted to nerves as the usually unflappable fighter was presented with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt at the Allstars Training Center in Sweden.
Chimaev’s martial arts journey may be exploding onto the big stage inside the octagon, but the Chechen-born Swedish fighter is still learning and growing as a martial artist, and he explained that while he already has a strong grappling base due to his judo and no-gi grappling experience, he’s reverted back to traditional gi-based BJJ to further enhance his skills.
That training has taken place at his main training base at Allstars in Stockholm, where he is put through his paces by a BJJ champions Alan Finfou and Bruno Matias.
He’s surrounded by a host of grappling champions on the mats, including world champions Elina Moestam and Martina Gramenius, as well as European champion Max Lindblad. Plus, of course, there’s a host of elite-level MMA fighters who train out of the gym, including Alexander Gustafsson and Ilir Latifi.
And while his professional target is to capture a UFC championship belt one day, Chimaev seems equally determined to work his way through the BJJ belt system.
“When I was 7-8 years old I did judo, throws and things like that. I still have it in me from those times but I want to learn more about the ground game,” he explained.
“I train a lot of no-gi but now I’m starting with the gi again. I want my blue belt!”
The blue belt is the first belt awarded to white belt students once they have shown competence in the first level of grappling skills in the syllabus, and Chimaev was presented with his blue belt by Finfou in front of his fellow students as they applauded him for his achievement.
After being given the floor to make a speech to the room, a shy Chimaev said, “I love my coach. I fought so hard for this blue belt. I’m so nervous! I’m not this nervous when I fight.
“Thank you to everyone, it’s so much fun to train with everybody. Now I will try to get more submissions with this!”
Aggressive US policies targeting Huawei have forced the Chinese tech giant to redirect investment to Russia and expand operations in the country, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has revealed.
“After the United States included us in the Entity List, we transferred our investment in the United States to Russia, increased Russian investment, expanded the Russian scientist team, and increased the salary of Russian scientists,” Ren said as cited by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of the four top Chinese universities he visited. While the visit came in late July, the university did not publish a transcript of his speech until this weekend.
It is unclear how much the world’s largest telecommunications equipment vendor is now pouring into Russia. Last year, Huawei announced plans to invest more than $10 million in the development of its mobile services ecosystem in Russia and vowed to give around $7.8 million to promote 5G technology in the country and train 10,000 specialists by 2025. It has also teamed up with Russian operators on the rollout of the next-generation networks, and helped launch the first 5G test zone in Moscow.
With the US and China locked in a trade war, the Trump administration has blacklisted Huawei and other Chinese firms, alleging they are national security threats.
Despite Huawei’s denials of the accusation, Washington continues to put pressure on the company, recently depriving it of foreign chip supplies. Earlier this month, the tech giant acknowledged that it will have to stop making the chipsets powering its flagship smartphones.
“Some US politicians want Huawei dead,” Huawei’s founder said in the recently published speech. Ren added that American politicians’ attitudes does not represent American companies and society, so the company “will never hate” the US, “no matter what.”
A 3-year-old girl was thrown meters into the air and ragdolled by strong gusts of wind in a horrifying incident at a festival in Taiwan.
The girl was launched high into the air after she became entangled in the strings of a kite as it was released during a festival on a particularly blustery Sunday afternoon.
Eyewitness video captured the terrifying scene as gobsmacked bystanders quickly gathered to try and cushion the poor girl's fall.
https://ift.tt/32JGvCp
She was airborne for about 30 seconds before festival staff managed to tame the kite long enough to bring the girl back down to Earth in the seaside town of Nanlioao, outside the city of Hsinchu, south of the capital, Taipei.
Wind speeds of 32 to 38 miles per hour (50 to 61 kilometers per hour) were recorded at the site of the kite festival, just below gale force.
The girl was reportedly rushed to hospital as a precaution but thankfully only suffered minor injuries with abrasions to her face and neck. Apart from the minor bumps, bruises and scrapes, the girl was physically unscathed, though may be wary of kites for some time.
Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien issued a public apology for the incident and has suspended the festival pending an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.
“The city government team offers its sincere apology to the victim and the public. We will review the incident to avoid such an accident from happening again. We will also investigate responsibility and conduct an in-depth review,” Chih-chien said.
The kite was reportedly supposed to scatter candies from the sky for children to catch below.
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The French foreign minister has blamed unrealistic expectations of the British government for a stall in talks on post-Brexit trade between the UK and the European Union.
“The negotiations are not advancing because of an intransigent and, let's be clear, unrealistic attitude of the United Kingdom,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday.
The rebuke came during a speech to French ambassadors based in Europe, which Le Drian delivered during a workshop he conducted alongside his German counterpart, Heiko Maas. Germany currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
Maas said the European Union was as united as ever in striking an unambiguous trade agreement with Britain, adding that the ball was in London’s court. Unless a deal is sealed by the end of the year, commerce between the two sides will be regulated by general WTO terms starting December.
The sides blame each other for the continued gridlock and are increasingly skeptical that the negotiations may succeed in time.
A 3-year-old girl was thrown meters into the air and ragdolled by strong gusts of wind in a horrifying incident at a festival in Taiwan.
The girl was launched high into the air after she became entangled in the strings of a kite as it was released during a festival on a particularly blustery Sunday afternoon.
Eyewitness video captured the terrifying scene as gobsmacked bystanders quickly gathered to try and cushion the poor girl's fall.
https://ift.tt/32JGvCp
She was airborne for about 30 seconds before festival staff managed to tame the kite long enough to bring the girl back down to Earth in the seaside town of Nanlioao, outside the city of Hsinchu, south of the capital, Taipei.
Wind speeds of 32 to 38 miles per hour (50 to 61 kilometers per hour) were recorded at the site of the kite festival, just below gale force.
The girl was reportedly rushed to hospital as a precaution but thankfully only suffered minor injuries with abrasions to her face and neck. Apart from the minor bumps, bruises and scrapes, the girl was physically unscathed, though may be wary of kites for some time.
Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien issued a public apology for the incident and has suspended the festival pending an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.
“The city government team offers its sincere apology to the victim and the public. We will review the incident to avoid such an accident from happening again. We will also investigate responsibility and conduct an in-depth review,” Chih-chien said.
The kite was reportedly supposed to scatter candies from the sky for children to catch below.
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It's been well reported that footballing icon Lionel Messi is looking for an exit from Barcelona, and fans of VfB Stuttgart have made an audacious attempt to provide it by trying to pay his €900m release clause through GoFundMe.
It looks likely that six-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi is on his way out of Camp Nou, after becoming frustrated with the Barca board and telling top brass he will not be turning up for new manager Ronald Koeman's first training session on Monday.
However, the club have remained adamant the Argentine legend will not be leaving without the €900 million ($833 million) release clause in his contract being paid, backed up by the Spanish league.
Money bags Manchester City are looking favorites to sign the Argentine legend, but now a competitor in the market has emerged in the shape of newly-promoted Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart.
"We VfB fans are collecting money to pay for Lionel Messi's transfer,"the plucky page description reads. The long shot is not entirely without self-awareness and is made a little tongue-in-cheek, as in the (highly likely) event the entire amount is not raised, any proceeds will go to charity.
— Eddie EUROPAPOKALSIEGER 🔴⚪️🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (@Eheppner31) August 30, 2020
"In the event that the planned amount is not reached on time or Lionel Messi joins another club, 100% of the money raised will be donated to Viva con Agua."
Viva con Agua is a charity that exists to establish access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation for all humans worldwide, based in the St. Pauli area of Hamburg.
La Liga recently confirmed the release clause in Messi's contract remains valid and must be honored in the event of any transfer, meaning it could be unlikely any club will be tempted to make a move for Barca's greatest ever player any time soon.
Messi's current contract, which he signed in 2017, contains a clause that would have allowed him to leave the Catalan side for free if he had put in an official request by June 10. That date has expired, although Messi representatives have argued COVID-19 restrictions make the clause itself invalid.
The player's father and representative Jorge is expected to land in Catalonia any time from his native Rosario to iron out the details with Barca head honchos and oversee any negotiations about his exit.
Tottenham-born songstress Adele has incurred the wrath of the woke crowd online, and now stands accused of cultural appropriation, after she shared a photo of her posing in a Jamaican flag bikini with an Afro Caribbean hairstyle.
Adele, 32, took to Instagram to mark the occasion of what would have been the weekend of the Notting Hill Carnival in her hometown in North London, were it not for the coronavirus pandemic.
“Happy what would be Notting Hill Carnival my beloved London,” the star captioned the picture in which she sported a traditional African hairstyle known as 'Bantu knots,' small coiled buns popular among Afro-Caribbean cultures.
Needless to say, woke ideologues online were not impressed and flooded the post’s comment section with criticism, blasting the hairstyle as "totally unnecessary" and demanding that Adele, "Stop appropriating Black culture."
"Bantu knots are not for you. Period," they concluded.
"You can’t tell me you don’t know this is cultural appropriation! Especially in the world’s climate at the moment, You are just trolling at this point!” chimed in another.
One exhausted user asked why the singer "couldn’t just wear a ponytail?"
However, the post accrued over 3.75 million likes and the glowing endorsement from a number of high profile celebrities.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell, whose mother is Jamaican, appeared to endorse the style, with two love heart emojis while Jamaican musician Popcaan shared an equally emphatic fist emoji with a love heart. Westworld star Tessa Thompson also gave Adele the seal of approval with a fire emoji.
Meanwhile, others just took the post at face value and poked fun at the star’s style with some good-natured ribbing, as the singer was compared to cartoon dolls while others referenced an infamous scene from the American version of the popular sitcom ‘The Office.’
The Notting Hill Carnival, one of the largest street festivals in the world, celebrates black culture each year but was moved online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The inaugural event was held in 1966 and was organized by activist Rhaune Laslett to celebrate diversity.
The government of Paris is setting up five new sites to conduct free screening for Covid-19 and help private labs deal with demand for their services. Last week, France surpassed the national record of 900,000 weekly tests.
Starting Monday, three permanent centers are collecting samples as part of free Covid-19 testing in the French capital, the mayor’s office said. Additionally, two mobile labs will be serving various parts of the city in half-day shifts.
The measure is meant to alleviate pressure on private labs, which have been overwhelmed with the demand for Covid-19 screening. Last week, people had to wait up to five hours in long lines before being serviced.
Un des rares centres de dépistage test #PCR#Covid_19 de Paris (sinon attendre env. une semaine sur RDV).
Sensé ouvrir à 7h, cela fait 30min que rien ne se passe. La queue s'allonge mais des gens commencent à repartir...
Sérieusement @MinSoliSante... 🤷 pic.twitter.com/8R2DCqCQkR
The new screening centers will help deal with logistical problems, but concern remains about the capacity for processing the test, which is currently capped at 1,500 per day for Paris and needs to be ramped up, Le Parisien reported.
The demand for testing has spiked as France faces a resurgence of the coronavirus. Last week, more than 900,000 tests were conducted in the country, breaking the national record. More than 33,000 new cases were confirmed last week, a surge unseen in France since March.
The government of Paris is setting up five new sites to conduct free screening for Covid-19 and help private labs deal with demand for their services. Last week, France surpassed the national record of 900,000 weekly tests.
Starting Monday, three permanent centers are collecting samples as part of free Covid-19 testing in the French capital, the mayor’s office said. Additionally, two mobile labs will be serving various parts of the city in half-day shifts.
The measure is meant to alleviate pressure on private labs, which have been overwhelmed with the demand for Covid-19 screening. Last week, people had to wait up to five hours in long lines before being serviced.
Un des rares centres de dépistage test #PCR#Covid_19 de Paris (sinon attendre env. une semaine sur RDV).
Sensé ouvrir à 7h, cela fait 30min que rien ne se passe. La queue s'allonge mais des gens commencent à repartir...
Sérieusement @MinSoliSante... 🤷 pic.twitter.com/8R2DCqCQkR
The new screening centers will help deal with logistical problems, but concern remains about the capacity for processing the test, which is currently capped at 1,500 per day for Paris and needs to be ramped up, Le Parisien reported.
The demand for testing has spiked as France faces a resurgence of the coronavirus. Last week, more than 900,000 tests were conducted in the country, breaking the national record. More than 33,000 new cases were confirmed last week, a surge unseen in France since March.
The Indian military has accused China of violating the status quo with “provocative military movements” along the disputed border in Eastern Ladakh. There were intense clashes between the two nations in the area earlier this year.
Indian troops have pre-empted the Sunday night maneuvers of the Chinese military on the southern bank of the Pangong Tso Lake and strengthened their positions to “thwart Chinese intentions to unilaterally change facts on ground,” the Indian side said in a statement on Monday.
China did not immediately comment on the allegations. India would not provide details of what exactly had happened overnight, but expressed its resolve to stand up to China.
“The Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and tranquility through dialogue, but is also equally determined to protect its territorial integrity,” the statement said, adding that a meeting was underway at the border village of Chushul to resolve the issue.
Chinese and Indian troops have engaged in a series of stand-offs and clashes along their disputed border, including in the Eastern Ladakh area. The high-altitude Pangong Tso Lake is contested by both sides and saw intensive boat patrols and skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops. 20 Indian soldiers were killed on June 15 in Galwan Valley, while the Chinese side never confirmed the number of casualties on its side. Beijing and New Delhi blame each other for the escalation of border tension and the conflict caused a surge of mutual hostility between the two nations.
India and China fought a bloody war in 1962 over the Himalayan border.
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The Indian military has accused China of violating the status quo with “provocative military movements” along the disputed border in Eastern Ladakh. There were intense clashes between the two nations in the area earlier this year.
Indian troops have pre-empted the Sunday night maneuvers of the Chinese military on the southern bank of the Pangong Tso Lake and strengthened their positions to “thwart Chinese intentions to unilaterally change facts on ground,” the Indian side said in a statement on Monday.
China did not immediately comment on the allegations. India would not provide details of what exactly had happened overnight, but expressed its resolve to stand up to China.
“The Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and tranquility through dialogue, but is also equally determined to protect its territorial integrity,” the statement said, adding that a meeting was underway at the border village of Chushul to resolve the issue.
Chinese and Indian troops have engaged in a series of stand-offs and clashes along their disputed border, including in the Eastern Ladakh area. The high-altitude Pangong Tso Lake is contested by both sides and saw intensive boat patrols and skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops. 20 Indian soldiers were killed on June 15 in Galwan Valley, while the Chinese side never confirmed the number of casualties on its side. Beijing and New Delhi blame each other for the escalation of border tension and the conflict caused a surge of mutual hostility between the two nations.
India and China fought a bloody war in 1962 over the Himalayan border.
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Four locals have been killed and an American soldier suffered minor injuries after a passenger car with two couples on board collided with a US armoured vehicle, heading to a military base not far from Seoul.
The crash took place in the city of Pocheon, some 40 km (25 miles) north of South Korea’s capital of Seoul, late on Sunday, Yonhap news agency reported.
The car, with four civilians on board reportedly butted the rear of a US military vehicle on its way to a military base in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, on the border with North Korea.
The four victims, all in their 50s, were taken to hospital in the aftermath of the incident but succumbed to their injuries later in the night despite the efforts to resuscitate them.
Photos from the scene show the front of the passenger car badly mangled and debris scattered on the road.
Accident occurred on Yeongro Bridge. Police believe the SUV was driving at a high speed, crashed into the armoured vehicle without seeing it. The armoured vehicle has 2 reflectors at the back. Police plan to conduct an autopsy on the SUV driver's body incl. see if was drunk. pic.twitter.com/DbyVH7fX6c
The US personnel that were returning from a drill at the time of the incident have emerged relatively unscathed from the crash, which caused damage to the caterpillar tracks of the armoured vehicle. One soldier was taken to hospital with a minor injury.
It’s yet unclear what led to the collision, with police saying that an autopsy of the passenger car’s driver would be conducted. Local media reported that the US military vehicle was moving slowly with rear lights on before it was allegedly bumped into.
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Four locals have been killed and an American soldier suffered minor injuries after a passenger car with two couples on board collided with a US armoured vehicle, heading to a military base not far from Seoul.
CNN’s Chris Cillizza has become the butt of the joke online after he said that designating unrest in Kenosha and Portland as “riots” is a ploy by Trump. The photo in the article seems to be at odds with the spin, though.
CNN’s political commentator Chris Cillizza has faced a torrent of mockery from conservatives, who accused him of whitewashing violence festering in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Portland, Oregon after he opined that referring to the looting, vandalism and arson in both cities as rioting is unjustified and a “desperate” political ploy by US President Donald Trump.
“To hear Trump and his allies tell it, the situations unfolding in Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, in response to several high-profile shootings by the police of Black men is rioting, plain and simple,” Cillizza wrote in the piece titled ‘'Protests' or 'riots?' It makes a BIG difference.’
Trump's efforts to label what is happening in major cities as "riots" speaks at least somewhat to his desperation, politically speaking, at the moment.
The choice of the cover photo, which shows two riot police standing in front of the scorched carcass of a burning building, did not escape the netizens’ attention, triggering a meme-fest.
— Christian Varela, Friending Intensely (@vgman94) August 31, 2020
Ironically, the original description of the photo, provided by Getty Images, describes the scene as the "second night of rioting."
I found that picture on Getty Images and what do you know, it accurately describes the scene as the "second night of rioting" in Kenosha, Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/jJnoJEvquQ
Critics have also pointed out that it was Portland police, not Trump, who have declared a riot multiple times in some 100 days since the violence first broke out there.
“Serious question: do you have a ballpark idea of how many riots Portland has declared in the last month? And do you think the city is wrong to call them riots?” a commentator asked.
Serious question: do you have a ballpark idea of how many riots Portland has declared in the last month? And do you think the city is wrong to call them riots?
Cillizza’s point seems even more baffling considering that Democrats have launched a hashtag #TrumpRiots, acknowledging that peaceful protesters have long turned violent, but pinning the blame on the Trump administration for fanning the flames in Kenosha, which the president is set to visit on Tuesday, and Portland, that saw clashes between pro-Trump caravan and Black Lives Matter protetesters on Saturday.
“Chris! Check your inbox. We all pivoted to acknowledging the riots this morning, but blaming Trump supporters for them,” a commenter quipped.
Chris! Check your inbox. We all pivoted to acknowledging the riots this morning, but blaming Trump supporters for them.
It’s not the first time CNN’s coverage of the protests raises eyebrows. Earlier this week, the cable news channel chose to describe violence in Kenosha as “mostly peaceful protests” while showing viewers exactly the opposite, and invoking a torrent of ridicule upon itself.
Police have responded to reports of fire being opened at a pro-Trump parade of cars in Woodland Hills, California, after a tire was slashed by a projectile, probably a bullet. Standoff between suspects and police is underway.
The incident unfolded about 11:30 a.m. local time in the 20600 block of Ventura Boulevard, as the torrent of cars with Trump supporters was streaming past Woodland Hills, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
Update: LAPD says they got reports of shots fired on a Woodland Hills street where a large caravan of Trump supporters was passing through and a bullet may have struck a vehicle's tire. No injuries reportedhttps://t.co/iXLMFwftiT
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said that a woman, who was not part of the pro-Trump caravan, but was driving alongside the rally, reported that her tire was damaged after she heard sounds resembling that of gunfire.
India’s prime minister has praised two canines serving as sniffer dogs in the national armed forces and called on his fellow citizens to favor domestic breeds of dogs when adopting them as pets.
Narendra Modi delved into the strong and loyal natures of the oldest animal domesticated by humanity during Sunday’s episode of his radio program, Mann Ki Baat. In particular he praised Sophie and Vida, two canine officers who were given decorations for their service during India’s Independence Day earlier this month.
Indian breeds of dogs are majestic!
Also highlighted the exemplary roles played by dogs in our security forces, police forces and during times of disasters. #MannKiBaatpic.twitter.com/IzThnqRi5L
Vida, a labrador serving in the Army, was honored for discovering five landmines and a grenade. Sophie, a cocker spaniel, is a member of a bomb unit of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), a special ops branch of the Indian military intelligence. She helped discover materials that could be used to make improvised explosive devices.
Meet Sophie & Vida, the 2 Army IED/mine sniffer dogs that received Army chief commendation badges this month & found mention on #ManKiBaat today. pic.twitter.com/hzevpIAZWQ
“Our armed forces and security forces have many such brave dogs who not only live for the country but also sacrifice themselves for the country,” Modi told listeners, before urging all Indians considering adopting a dog to choose domestic breeds.
“Next time when you think of keeping a dog then you must bring one of the Indian-breed dogs home. When self-reliant India is becoming the mantra of the masses then no area should be left behind,” he said.
Modi’s government pursues nationalistic policies and seeks to develop domestic production of all products that India may need, be it weapons, medicine or, apparently, animal companionship. In the same broadcast, the prime minister said Indian software developers should use their skills to develop video games and take over a greater share of the global entertainment market.
