Daily Breaking news hindi and english, get all breaking news headlines from india and world, sports, buisness and photos and latest news from politics latest news updates and information and technology related tips and ideas.
Visit daily
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that those who would endanger the kingdom’s security and stability would face Riyadh’s “iron fist,” a day after a grenade attack at a non-Muslim cemetery in the city of Jeddah.
“We will continue to hit with an iron fist against anyone who thinks of threatening our security and stability,” the prince said in a speech addressing the Shura Council, the kingdom's top advisory body.
"We will continue to confront any extremist behavior and ideas," he added. Mohammed bin Salman said that his country, the birthplace of Islam, rejects any terrorist acts and is determined to confront extremism. He also praised the interior ministry and security forces reforms, launched back in 2017, which he said reduced the number of terrorist attacks in the kingdom “to near zero.”
The prince's speech comes a day after several people were injured in a grenade attack on a Remembrance Day ceremony, which was held at a non-Muslim cemetery in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist group claimed the attack, but did not provide any evidence it was actually behind it. The attack on a ceremony involving foreign diplomats from France, the UK, the US, Italy and Greece, came almost two weeks after a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah was assaulted with a knife.
France has seen escalating tensions with the Muslim world over the past month, amid a crackdown on 'radical Islam' in the country that many Muslim believers have protested as a pretext for government repression of their religious institutions. The crackdown was prompted by the beheading of a school teacher near Paris over cartoons of Prophet Mohammed he showed to his students during a lesson on freedom of speech. Saudi Arabia criticized the cartoons but also said that it rejects “any attempt to link Islam and terrorism.”
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has said he expects Europe to abandon what he called “misunderstood tolerance” in the wake of a terrorist attack in Vienna while calling for an EU-wide effort to combat “political Islam.”
“I expect an end to the wrongly understood tolerance … in all European countries,” Kurz told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, adding that the ideology of “political Islam” endangers “our freedom” as well as the very “European model of life.”
The chancellor maintained that the issue is grave enough to require a Europe-wide response, adding that he already raised this topic in phone calls with many European leaders and also plans to make a fight against “political Islam” an issue on the agenda at the upcoming EU summits.
Speaking to the Austrian media, Kurz also called a decision to release the Vienna attacker on parole “definitely wrong.” Earlier, the nation’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer admitted that the Islamist radical that killed four people and injured 23 more in Vienna on Monday “tricked” a de-radicalization program overseen by the Justice Ministry.
The perpetrator was earlier sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019 over swearing allegiance to Islamic State (IS, former ISIS) and attempting to join terrorists in Syria. Yet, he was released just some eight months later since he was no longer considered a threat.
“Had he not been released from prison, a terrorist attack like this could not have happened,” Kurz admitted. Still, the chancellor also maintained that there is only “one culprit”“guilty” of this “barbaric, cowardly Islamist terrorist attack” and that is the assailant himself.
In the wake of the Monday shooting, Kurz apparently sought to ease any potential tensions by saying it was “not a conflict between Christians and Muslims, or between Austrians and migrants” but between “civilization and barbarity.”
Yet, just days before the attack, Kurz already vowed to “fight against political Islam,” although at a national level, in response to another incident that saw a crowd of Turkish youth rampaging through a Vienna church while shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
It is, however, unclear if his statements might have triggered the Monday attack that has since been claimed by Islamic State terrorists that said it was supposedly a revenge for Austria’s support to the US campaign in Syria.
The developments come as France launched a crackdown on extremism of its own following the murder of a schoolteacher, Samuel Paty, who showed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class – a move that triggered widespread condemnation and protests in the Muslim world. The murder was also followed by another attack in the French city of Nice that left three people dead.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
from RT World News https://ift.tt/387dhBs
https://ift.tt/3mPPD0I
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has denounced a deadly terrorist attack in Vienna, vowing “decisive action” against the culprits while announcing that the armed forces would take over some police duties in the city.
“We are currently going through difficult times in our republic. I would like to thank all the emergency services who risk their lives, especially today for our safety,” Kurz said in a series of tweets on Monday night, adding: “Our police will take decisive action against the perpetrators of this hideous terrorist attack.”
I am glad that our police officers have already been able to eliminate a perpetrator. We will never allow ourselves to be intimidated by terrorism and will fight these attacks resolutely by all means.
Wir erleben gerade schwere Stunden in unserer Republik. Ich möchte allen Einsatzkräften danken, die insbesondere heute für unsere Sicherheit ihr Leben riskieren. Unsere Polizei wird entschlossen gegen die Täter dieses widerwärtigen Terroranschlags vorgehen.
The chancellor also said that the federal government had deployed the military to “take over the property protection previously carried out by police in Vienna” in order to free up law enforcement resources.
Assailants armed with rifles launched an attack in downtown Vienna earlier on Monday evening, targeting six different locations near the city’s largest synagogue and engaging police in running gun battles. At least one bystander has been killed in the shooting and another 15 injured, police said, adding that one of the perpetrators was also shot dead. A police spokesman declined to confirm or deny media reports about a possible hostage situation near the city center, saying it’s “too early” to comment publicly.
While authorities have yet to confirm any motive for the deadly shootings, at least one of the suspected attackers was heard in footage shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic). The exact target also remains unclear, as the synagogue and adjacent offices were closed at the time of the incident.
French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that Europe will not give into terror following a deadly attack in Austria’s capital, voicing support for a “friendly country” while threatening retaliation for their shared “enemies.”
“We French share the shock and grief of the Austrian people struck this evening by an attack in the heart of their capital, Vienna. After France, a friendly country is attacked,” Macron said in a pair of tweets on Monday evening – one in French, the other in German.
This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give up anything.
The comment came amid running gun battles between armed assailants and police in downtown Vienna on Monday night, following an incident near the city’s largest synagogue deemed a terrorist attack by the Austrian Interior Minister. While the attackers’ motives remain unclear, police have confirmed that “several suspects armed with rifles” have fired their weapons in six different locations, killing at least one bystander and injuring several others. One of the gunmen was also shot and killed by officers, police said.
The President of the European Commission, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, joined Macron in condemning the “brutal” attack, saying “Europe stands by Austria’s side in full solidarity,” while the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs Josep Fontelles dubbed the shootings “cowardly [acts] of violence and hate.”
I am shocked and saddened by the brutal attack that took place in Vienna. My thoughts are with the families of the victims and the Austrian people.
Europe stands in full solidarity with Austria. We are stronger than hatred and terror.
France has seen a number of shocking terrorist attacks in recent weeks, including a stabbing spree at a Catholic basilica in Nice last Thursday, as well as the gruesome beheading of a school teacher in a suburb of Paris in October. Both have since been labeled “Islamist terrorist attacks” by French authorities, who have responded to the violence with ramped up security around schools and houses of worship nationwide, including the deployment of thousands of soldiers to French streets.
As Austrian police say multiple attackers have taken part in a terrorist shooting in Vienna’s old city, images have emerged of a bearded man dressed in white and using an AK-style assault rifle to shoot at civilians and police.
The yet-unidentified man can be seen in security footage, walking down the cobblestone-lined street before pulling up a rifle and shooting a man in cold blood outside the Stadttempel, a synagogue dating back to the 1820s on Vienna’s Seitenstettengasse on Monday evening.
A short while later, an identically dressed gunman appears on nearby Schwedenplatz, the plaza along the Danube River, where he is filmed exchanging fire with police officers, injuring at least one.
Canadian opposition party leader Erin O'Toole was appalled by Justin Trudeau's tepid support for "free speech" in the face of Islamist attacks over Mohammed cartoons, saying the prime minister is undermining a pillar of democracy.
“It is very disturbing when the prime minister sends the signal that he is not protecting freedom of expression,” O'Toole said Saturday on Twitter.
It is one of the pillars of our democracy, and without it, we slide into ignorance.
O'Toole's rebuke came one day after Trudeau responded to a question about the right to show a caricature of the Prophet Muhammed by saying: “We owe it to ourselves to act with respect for others and to seek not to arbitrarily or unnecessarily injure those with whom we are sharing a society and a planet.”
We will always defend freedom of expression, but freedom of expression is not without limits.
Trudeau made his comments amid a wave of terrorist attacks in France, which began earlier this month with the beheading of a schoolteacher who had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as part of a discussion of free speech. Those cartoons had been first published by Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, triggering an outrage all over the Muslim world and a 2015 terrorist attack that killed 12 people at the satirical magazine's office in Paris.
France's president, Emmanuel Macron, last week responded to the schoolteacher murder by defending free-speech rights, leading to calls for a boycott of French products by Turkey and other Muslim countries.
Canada has strong ties to France. In fact, French is the mother tongue of 7.2 million Canadians, or 21 percent of the country's population. Canada also is home to more than 1 million Muslims.
Trudeau called this month's terror attacks “unjustifiable,” but appeared to distance himself from Macron. “In a pluralist, diverse and respectful society like ours, we owe it to ourselves to be aware of the impact of our words, of our actions on others, particularly these communities and populations who still experience a great deal of discrimination,” he said.
Trudeau's comments were met with criticism at home and abroad. Quebec journalist Benoît Dutrizac said Trudeau should be forced to resign after making statements that “place him on the side of the worst Islamists.” He added, “We already knew he had bad judgment, but now he's gone way too far.”
Dear Justin,we don’t live in an ideal world,people mustn’t but everyday they are breaking signal,doing drugs,molesting others,hurting sentiments.If every petty crime’s punishment is beheading each other then why we need a Prime Minister or any law n order? https://t.co/U9ronFrvbZ
Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley said Trudeau failed to give a “full-throated” defense of the free-speech rights granted to all Canadians. “What Justin Trudeau did this week was say that he agrees with freedom of speech or freedom of expression as long as no one is hurt – or as long as you don't offend people who may act out violently,” Lilley wrote.
The controversy raised eyebrows as far away as India, where Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut blasted Trudeau for failing to defend free-speech rights. “If every petty crime's punishment is beheading each other, then why (do) we need a prime minister or any law and order?” she tweeted.
Except when it applies to his own freedom of expression of course — nothing he says ever applies to himself. Following his logic, it would be okay for someone to take offence to his costume and have a possibly unwanted reaction. #shoepolishtrudeaupic.twitter.com/8Tg4lVFnNR
The country voted to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill but no to legalizing marijuana. Two separate referendums were held along with the general election won Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
(Image credit: Mark Baker/AP)
from World : NPR https://ift.tt/3jGfPst
https://ift.tt/3eaO9e6
The ongoing protests against Covid-19 restrictions threaten “internal security,” Thuringia PM Bodo Ramelow told German media, suggesting terrorism and pogroms were taking shape at the hands of a right-wing/‘anti-vaxxer’ alliance.
The massive demonstrations against Berlin’s tightening pandemic control measures are starting to resemble “terrorism,” Ramelow told Tagesspiegel on Thursday, insisting the protests – and the fringe interests they brought together – were “a threat to internal security in our country.”
Ramelow, who is a member of The Left (Die Linke), pointed to a protest in which some marchers carried large photos showing Chancellor Angela Merkel and virologist Dr. Christian Drosten in concentration camp uniforms and chanted for them to be hung from lampposts as evidence the opposition to Merkel’s coronavirus regime was getting out of control.
Especially dangerous has been the way in which the demonstrations bring together far-right “Reichsburgers” (a fringe group of German monarchists) with “lateral thinkers” (Querdenken, a reference to a free-thinker group that has organized numerous protests against lockdowns) and “corona-deniers” with “anti-vaccination activists,” Ramelow continued.
The volatile mixture, he said, was “very dangerous.” He dismissed the notion that Germans would be vaccinated against their will and seemed disturbed that anyone would even consider the idea that Microsoft founder and billionaire vaccine evangelist Bill Gates was “now trying to force-vaccinate us.”
I observe pogrom-like moods in all these networks and conspiracy myths.
In the interview, Ramelow attempted to link last weekend’s arson attack on the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s federal disease control agency, to the anti-lockdown movement. However, the attackers – who were seen by security guards throwing molotov cocktails at the facility – have not been caught and no evidence has been produced to indicate a political motive. The facility was reportedly targeted with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack by hackers several days before the firebombing.
The leftist politician also sought to link the anti-lockdown protesters to a bizarre act of vandalism earlier this month on Berlin’s Museum Island, a crime German media strove to pin on conspiracy theorists and the QAnon movement. Dozens of artworks and artifacts, including a reconstruction of an ancient Greek Pergamon altar, were defaced with an unknown “oily substance.”
Ramelow claimed the beliefs of the anti-lockdown protesters were part of an insidious undercurrent of “irrationalism” which was responsible for wild stories about the island.
“They say the Pergamon Altar is the Witches’ Sabbath,” the politician pointed out. Indeed, “they” say much more than that – former vegan celebrity chef Attila Hildmann has claimed that the altar is actually the nexus of the “global satanism scene,” even accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel of performing “human sacrifices” on it with her globalist pals. It is unclear how all this is related to the anti-lockdown protests, however.
German officials have sought to label anti-lockdown protesters as security threats before, in particular after the August incident in which a small faction of protesters marching in Berlin leaped over metal barricades and evaded riot police to “storm” the Reichstag building. To add to the political outrage that followed, some of the intruders were brandishing the imperial German flag popular with the Reichsburgers.
While the splinter group received the lion’s share of media attention, including grandstanding denunciations from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its political allies, this happened during a much larger demonstration. Tens of thousands more protesters massed near the Brandenburg Gate to show their opposition to the strict controls placed on Germans amid the pandemic, and mass protests mostly went without incident.
While Merkel pledged late last month not to enact a second economy-destroying nationwide lockdown, her government has steadily been applying more pressure as cases creep up. A partial lockdown is set to take effect next week, with restaurants, theaters, gyms, and swimming pools closing and private gatherings limited to 10 people. Schools will remain open.
Berlin has pointed to a steep uptick in Covid-19 cases to justify the crackdown, even though the rise has not been accompanied by a surge in deaths as happened during the initial wave of cases. A Bavarian testing lab was found to be churning out a stream of false positives earlier this week, with 58 of 60 tests wrongly diagnosed as infected. Economic Minister Peter Altmaier downplayed the issue, suggesting it was only a problem at that one facility.
Like this story? Share it with a friend!
from RT World News https://ift.tt/3oIcIE7
https://ift.tt/3mEr4Uo
The city recorded zero new coronavirus cases on Monday, for the first time since June. "Now is the time to congratulate every single Victorian for staying the course," said the state's top official.
(Image credit: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
from World : NPR https://ift.tt/31URl90
https://ift.tt/34B8KoF
Washington will “eliminate” any long-range missiles shipped to Venezuela from Iran, the US envoy to both countries warned after an arms embargo on Tehran expired this month – but offered no evidence a single sale has taken place.
“The transfer of long-range missiles from Iran to Venezuela is not acceptable to the United States and will not be tolerated or permitted,” Elliott Abrams, the State Department Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela told Fox News on Monday.
We will make every effort to stop shipments of long-range missiles, and if somehow they get to Venezuela they will be eliminated there.
While providing no evidence that such arms transfers have already occurred and unable to show that any shipments are imminent, Abrams nonetheless insisted Venezuela would be an “obvious target” for Iranian weapons sales, as the “two pariah regimes” have “a relationship.”
The envoy’s threat comes as Washington also slapped sanctions on “key actors” in Iran’s oil sector on Monday – including the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum – citing their alleged support for the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite military unit the US classifies as a terrorist group.
Treasury Department officials charged that an “IRGC-led network” used Iranian vessels to ship some 10 million barrels of crude oil, “mostly destined for the [Bashar] Assad regime” in Syria. The department also designated four individuals accused of involvement in “the recent sale of Iranian gasoline to the illegitimate Maduro regime in Venezuela,” as well as the UAE-based Mobin International Limited, which it said had ties to Caracas’ state-owned oil firm.
The stepped up sanctions follow the creation of Venezuela’s “Scientific and Technological Military Council,” announced by President Nicolas Maduro on Friday in a move he said would protect his country’s “independence” in the face of US sanctions.
“Despite all the blockade and sanctions, we continue to equip the Armed Forces to be ready for the military defense of our land,” Maduro said last week.
On Friday, Iran blacklisted a trio of American diplomats over “terrorist acts” – citing their support for the crippling US sanctions regime and involvement in the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani earlier this year – Tehran’s latest act of retaliation in a tit-for-tat scrap with Washington in recent weeks.
Tensions have flared between the two countries since a 13-year UN arms embargo on Iran expired on October 18, an event hailed as a “momentous day” by the Islamic Republic. The lapse of the weapons ban came as a blow to the Trump administration, which exerted enormous pressure in the UN Security Council to keep the embargo alive, including efforts to revive dormant “snapback” sanctions on Iran. The attempts ultimately failed, however, with most Security Council members refusing to go along with Washington’s push to extend the embargo indefinitely.
The Trump administration has similarly pursued a pressure campaign on Caracas, imposing a steady stream of sanctions on the country while openly supporting Maduro’s political opposition, led by figurehead Juan Guaido, who for a time was accepted as Venezuela’s “interim president” in Washington. The US State Department, moreover, has offered a $15 million reward for any information leading to Maduro’s arrest, after the Department of Justice charged the Bolivarian leader with “narco terrorism.”
Yerevan and Baku have renewed their commitments under a ceasefire deal, agreed earlier this month in Moscow but plagued with violations from both sides, after separate meetings with US officials in Washington.
Armenian and Azerbajani foreign ministers, representing the two regional rivals locked in a decades-old conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, have “reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to implement and abide by the humanitarian ceasefire agreed in Moscow on October 10,” the US, Armenia and Azerbaijan said in a joint statement released by the US Department of State on Saturday.
The truce is set to come into effect at 08:00 am local time on Monday.
#BREAKING: After 3 days of negotiations in the United States, parties reaffirmed their commitment to implement and abide by the humanitarian ceasefire previously announced on October 10, 2020.
It'll take effect at 08:00 a.m. (local time) on October 26, 2020.#CeaseAzeriFirepic.twitter.com/Vt1maFwsCW
The fresh attempt at bringing hostilities between the warring parties to an end came after a series of meetings between top Armenian and Azerbajani diplomats and senior US officials. On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down separately with Azerbaijan FM Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. The negotiations also involved Trump's National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, who welcomed the news, adding that US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun “played a key role” in the breakthrough.
(2 of 2) “Congratulations to all of them for agreeing to adhere to the cease fire today. Lives will be saved in both nations. @SecPompeo & Stephen Biegun played a key role. Well done.” - NSA Robert C. O’Brien
Since the heavy fighting broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan on September 27 in what has become the most intense flare-up of the smoldering territory dispute since the 1994 armistice, there have already been two attempts to broker a truce. The previous ceasfires quickly collapsed, however.
The original October 10 ceasefire, struck after marathon talks in Moscow and mediated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov fell through hours after it took effect, with Armenia and Azerbaijan trading blame for its premature demise.
The second attempt at agreeing to a pause in fighting came on October 17, but that ceasefire did not hold for much longer either.
In a separate statement on Saturday, the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France and the US, said that its co-chairs and the two foreign ministers met in Washington to discuss “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, possible parameters for monitoring the ceasefire, and initiating discussion of core substantive elements of a comprehensive solution” of the conflict.
The group said that the next such meeting will take place on October 29 in Geneva to discuss a roadmap to “a peaceful settlement.”
While US President Donald Trump touted the “really good progress” he claimed was achieved, it remains to be seen if the freshly-agreed ceasefire survives any longer than its short-lived predecessors.
When the diplomats were still busy negotiating in the US capital, the shelling intensified in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh - internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. There were reports that Strepankert, the capital city of the self-proclaimed ethinic Armenian republic came under heavy bombardment on Friday.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
from RT World News https://ift.tt/3mn81xs
https://ift.tt/2TjzoMH
Police have ruined what was slated to become a massive fetish party in downtown Berlin, swooping on the gathering as it was in full swing. Officers said that the participants were in violation of the Covid-19 restrictions.
“For around 600 guests at a fetish party in Mitte [a central borough in Berlin], it probably ended unsatisfactorily,” police reported in a tongue-in-cheek message on Twitter late on Saturday.
Local law enforcement pooled forces with the federal police to swoop on the party, which was taking place both inside and outside the venue.
Apparently, not all the revellers took the notice immediately, with Berlin police saying that their colleagues from the federal law enforcement were forced to “make it clear again that it was time to go home.”
While it’s unclear if the event was official, and if any tickets or invitations had been distributed in advance, the organizer of the party is expected to be served with a complaint, Der Tagespiegel reported, citing police.
Police, which have ramped up its onslaught on those violating the coronavirus restrictions during night hours, accused the party goers of running afoul of hygiene measures imposed to stem the spread of the disease.
The revellers reportedly did not wear masks and failed to follow social distancing guidelines, with too many of them congregating in far too narrow a space.
Not all the netizens, however, were not in a hurry to take police allegations at face value, with some quick-witted commentators arguing that they can hardly imagine a “fetish party” without such a befitting accessoire as a face mask.
“Masks are certainly worn at fetish party,” a commenter said.
Some, however, took the incident quite seriously, suggesting that merely sending the offenders home is not enough of a punishment.
“Just go home? Hopefully after the personal details have been established,” one commenter said, responding to the police statement.
“People have been practicing social distancing for months, avoiding meetings with friends and family - and then seeing this horde of "lacquer" monkeys ... unbelievable,” another charged.
Up to 1,000 people can gather for public events held indoors in Berlin, provided they follow social distancing and hygiene rules. The number of participants at outdoor events is capped at 5,000.
At the same, there are no limits on the number of people allowed at religious gatherings or protests. Face masks are compulsory if more than 100 people are expected to turn out at a rally, however.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) disease control center described the coronavirus situation in Germany as “very serious” on Thursday, as the number of daily infections has been on the rise. Some 418,005 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Germany since the start of the pandemic as of Saturday, including more than 10,000 people who succumbed to the disease.
Like this story? Share it with a friend!
from RT World News https://ift.tt/3opZBXV
https://ift.tt/3onamuc
Washington has added the Iranian ambassador to Iraq to its sanctions blacklist, claiming he works for an elite military unit it has deemed a terrorist cell, as well as three groups it accused of “sowing discord” in the 2020 race.
Sanctions were announced for Ambassador Iraj Masjedi on Thursday, with the US Treasury Department deeming him a “long-running threat to Iraqi security” and citing his alleged role in training militia groups in Iraq with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – designated a terrorist organization by the US last year.
“In his decades of service with the group, Masjedi has overseen a program of training and support to Iraqi militia groups, and he has directed or supported groups that are responsible for attacks that have killed and wounded US and coalition forces in Iraq,” the department said in a statement, adding that the envoy “has exploited his position as the Iranian regime’s ambassador in Iraq to obfuscate financial transfers conducted for the benefit” of the IRGC and its external wing, the Quds Force.
Masjedi was appointed ambassador in 2017, after serving in the IRGC for some 35 years. A veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, he later worked as a close adviser to Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US assassination strike in January. Following Soleimani’s death, Masjedi took on some of his former duties in overseeing Iraq’s Shia militia groups – known as the Popular Mobilization Forces – who have played a salient role in beating back the Islamic State.
Though President Donald Trump has unleashed a barrage of sanctions on the Islamic Republic since taking office, including on Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, penalties for diplomats are somewhat rare, more often targeting military officials.
In Thursday’s sanctions announcement, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also accused Tehran of a “destabilizing foreign agenda,” including attempts to “influence US elections,” beating the drum on an increasingly common talking point from the Trump administration.
In the same spirit, on Thursday Washington also imposed penalties on five Iranian entities it said had tried to “influence elections in the United States,” though produced no evidence to support the charge. One day prior, US intelligence officials also claimed Iran was behind a “spoof email” campaign designed to “intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump,” adding to a flurry of similar assertions of foreign influence operations by not only Iran, but Russia and China as well.
Tehran has rejected the allegations, lodging a formal complaint on Thursday with the Swiss ambassador in Iran – who has acted as a mediator for US-Iranian diplomacy – to protest charges it called “baseless.” A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the UN, Alireza Miryousefi, has also dismissed the claims as “absurd” and “dangerous,” scorching Washington for “desperate public attempts to question the outcome of its own elections.”
Assertions of foreign election-meddling have come to dominate the US political scene since the 2016 presidential race, originating with an elaborate conspiracy theory that then-candidate Trump worked with Moscow to tip the scales in his favor through a combination of hacking and social media trolls. Though the Trump-Russia narrative has been largely discredited after a sweeping special counsel probe failed to substantiate its central tenets, claims of election interference from abroad have only intensified since and continue to overshadow the 2020 race.
The director of national intelligence and FBI director said on Wednesday night that U.S. officials believe Iranian influence-mongers are behind an election-intimidation scam.
(Image credit: Gabriella Demczuk/AP)
from World : NPR https://ift.tt/3jk77A2
https://ift.tt/34j98bB
The US State Department has approved a sale of advanced weaponry worth over $1.8 billion to Taiwan, the Pentagon said, leaving Congress to give final authorization as Beijing slams the deal as provocative and warns of retaliation.
The proposed arms transfer was certified by the State Department on Wednesday, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which notified lawmakers of the deal. The sale includes Lockheed Martin’s truck-mounted rocket launcher, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), long-range air-to-ground missiles produced by Boeing and sensor upgrades for Taiwan’s F-16 fighter jets – all to the tune of just over $1.8 billion.
The deal comes amid reports that a flurry of other arms transfers to Taiwan are in various stages of approval, believed to include advanced MQ-9 Reaper drones and a coastal missile defense system, among other weapons, valued at between $5 and $7 billion. Though previous administrations inked similar deals, President Donald Trump has overseen an uptick in transfers to the island, selling a total of $15 billion in arms since taking office, according to officials cited by the Wall Street Journal.
While the sales of the three weapon systems green-lit on Wednesday still require Congressional authorization, Beijing has already committed to a “legitimate and necessary” response should they go though, insisting the deals would “seriously” harm China’s security interests and undermine China-US relations. No specific countermeasures were proposed, but the country has previously imposed sanctions on US arms manufacturers after sales to Taiwan, including Lockheed Martin.
The transfers also come as Washington steps up military operations in the South and East China Seas, conducting regular show of force missions with long range bombers, spy flights with surveillance planes and “freedom of navigation” sail-throughs. Last week, an American destroyer transited the Taiwan Strait – what the Pentagon deemed a “routine” mission – prompting a harsh rebuke from Beijing, who warned that its forces would remain on “high alert” after a series of similar operations through the strait.
Like this story? Share it with a friend!
from RT World News https://ift.tt/2HuMt2I
https://ift.tt/35nkt9O
A social-media video showing students dancing back-to-back with their partners spurred an avalanche of stunned responses on Twitter amid public weariness over absurd social-distancing rules in the era of Covid-19.
The video showed formally dressed students locking arms with their partners from behind as they danced with their backs facing each other in waltz-like steps. While it is unclear where and when the clip was recorded, some alleged it was filmed during a classical dancing class, possibly in the Czech Republic as a joke to mock new Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the Czech government under new Health Minister Roman Prymula.
I can’t make up my mind whether this is crazy or desperately sad.
This is a Prom dance in the age of the global COVID scam!
The Czech language can be heard on the video, and such classes with performances to show their progress are common in the country.
This was ONE dance to mock measures by czech goverment. Instructor even jokingly called Prymula posture, Prymula is our dr. Fauci. Rest of the lesson was in normal dancing posture. You dont have to overreact.
But regardless of whether it was serious or satire, the scene struck a nerve on Twitter, where commenters saw it as a sign of the draconian times as governments around the world impose mask mandates and other social-distancing rules amid the pandemic.
A Twitter user with the account name BeachMilk, who posted the video, said, “Society has entered self-destruction mode.” One observer tweeted, “When the historians write this period, it will be a subject of incredible amazement and scorn.” Another said, “All they lack is a toe-tag,” while journalist Cory Morningstar lamented, saying, “Desperately, desperately, desperately sad.”
Other Twitter users saw the back-to-back dancing as part of a trend toward purposely ludicrous rules that have no real public health benefit as a method of seizing more control over people. “We are being punked as a species,” one commenter said. “And it is on every single person who accepts this crap.” Another observer tweeted, “They’ll be playing this at Bilderberg, Davos, etc., laughing while the rest of us cry.”
Satirical or not, it would be easy to mistake the backward dance for 2020 reality, where pictures of young musicians playing their woodwind and brass instruments through mouth holes in their masks have become a meme, while Amazon is selling 6ft social distancing sticks. As one commenter on the dance video said, “We have now entered full Orwell. There is no coming back.”
Former software guru and one-time presidential candidate John McAfee has been nabbed in Spain on tax evasion and cryptocurrency fraud, ending his year long stint as a globetrotting fugitive. He now faces extradition to the US.
The US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission both announced charges for McAfee on Monday, hitting the security software founder with 10 counts linked to dodging the IRS and another series of charges for promoting investments in cryptocurrencies without disclosing that he was paid some $23 million to do so.
“John McAfee earned millions in income from promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements, and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary,” the DOJ said in a statement. “From 2014 to 2018, McAfee allegedly failed to file tax returns, despite receiving considerable income from these sources.”
McAfee was charged on five counts for willful failure to file a tax return, each of which carries a sentence of up to one year in prison, while the other five charges are linked to tax evasion itself, which could each result in up to five years behind bars. Originally filed in June, the newly unsealed indictment does not implicate McAfee’s former software company, which bears his name.
The SEC also accused McAfee of promoting “multiple [initial coin offerings] on Twitter” while “pretending to be impartial and independent even though he was paid more than $23 million in digital assets for the promotions.” The complaint also alleges that McAfee and his bodyguard, Jimmy Watson Jr., engaged in a separate scheme to promote cryptocurrencies on Twitter and then sell them off as their price rose. The government did not name the particular currencies in its complaint.
McAfee is said to have generated “an enormous amount of publicity” with “extravagant posts” online – singling out his promise to “eat my d**k on national television” if his forecasts for Bitcoin didn’t come true – which the SEC claims helped to pump up the value of specific cryptos that he then sold off.
“The SEC’s complaint... charges McAfee and Watson with violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, McAfee with violating the anti-touting provisions, and Watson with aiding and abetting McAfee’s violations,” the commission said in a statement, adding that it also seeks to “bar McAfee from serving as a public company officer and director.”
But seriously, he's been sued in Federal Court in New York for allegedly violating a bundle of U.S. securities laws that we all saw him seemingly violating in real time on twitter -- touting, scalping, and so forth pic.twitter.com/C3YVZQRHoQ
The 73-year-old tech tycoon has not made a secret about being a wanted man, openly sharing his fugitive – and often eccentric – lifestyle with his Twitter followers while freely admitting to paying no taxes for the better part of a decade. He spent a brief time in custody in the Dominican Republic this summer after authorities discovered undeclared weapons aboard his yacht, but ‘went dark’ and moved to an undisclosed location after he was spotted in Iceland by an internet sleuth. Last week, however, he let slip in a tweet that he had traveled to Spain, where he joked (apparently) that he was checking on the “progress of the mud wrestling arena I’m building.”
While few details about McAfee’s arrest in Spain have been made known, he now awaits extradition proceedings there, according to the DOJ.
