What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
A demonstration took place in Tel Aviv last night against the ‘Recommendations Bill’, the bill that in its current version will forbid publication of Israel Police’s recommendation of whether or not to pursue an indictment at the conclusion of a criminal trial. If enacted, the bill will apply retroactively to cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Globes English – Thousands join Tel Aviv ‘March of Shame’
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In his resignation speech, Hariri blamed Iran’s “meddling” in the country and its Lebanese ally, the Hezbollah movement for his decision, adding that he feared an assassination attempt.
The sudden move plunged Lebanon – a country with fragile political stability – into an ongoing period of uncertainty, raising fears of a potential war between Saudi Arabia and Iran with Lebanon on the front lines.
…Lebanese officials previously said they would only accept his resignation if it was delivered on Lebanese soil.
Hariri’s political rival, Hezbollah, also refused to acknowledge the resignation.
In a televised speech, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of forcing Hariri to quit and holding him against his will. The Lebanese unity government that Hariri formed a year ago includes Hezbollah members.
Lebanon’s PM Saad Hariri holds off resignation | News | Al Jazeera
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The Assad regime now controls most of the cities that it practically can, or that remain standing and desirable, despite Assad once expressing ambitions to retake the entire country.
Other northwestern areas are held by Turkish-backed rebels, and in the northeast, US-backed Syrian Kurds control much of the territory.
These Sochi talks are likely to spell out these internal borders. But they will also address Turkey’s ambitions for the awkward northwestern part, where Syria’s tormented and disenfranchised majority — its Sunnis — have a homeland of sorts.
This one photo tells you all you need to know about Syria – CNN
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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been accused by about a dozen members of his department of breaching a federal law aimed at preventing foreign militaries from enlisting child soldiers. The bizarre move by government employees highlights the apparent disarray Tillerson has brought to the department, and is emblematic of the tensions [between] the former Exxon Mobil CEO [and the] more experienced diplomats under his direction.
Tillerson allegedly violated the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) in June, when he decided to exclude Iraq, Myanmar and Afghanistan from a U.S. list of offenders regarding the use of child soldiers, according to a confidential “dissent” memo from July 28 obtained by Reuters.
Does Rex Tillerson Support Using Child Soldiers? Secretary of State Accused of Violating Federal Law
Useless asshat.
The United Nations found in a survey released last week that opium production has nearly doubled since 2016. Poppy cultivation has increased by 63 percent. Afghanistan is the world’s main cultivator of the poppy, from which heroin and opium are made.
Drug Labs Used By The Taliban In Afghanistan Are Now A U.S. Target After Trump Authorizes Strikes
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Based on Israeli sources, the report said that U.S. President Donald Trump intends to propose the Palestinians declare independence, after which the United States will recognize the Palestinian state. The Palestinians will also receive hundreds of millions of dollars from Sunni Arab countries as aid.
In addition, the United States is expected to adopt the principle of land swaps, but not necessarily according to the 1967 lines, said the report. The proposal will also meet most of Israel’s security demands. At this stage, no Jews or Arabs will be evacuated from their homes, and the issue of Jerusalem is not yet on the agenda. The question of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem will also be postponed.
Report: Trump peace plan will not include settlement evacuation – Israel News – Haaretz.com
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His resignation — which he blamed on pressure from Iran and its Lebanese Shiite proxy, Hezbollah — stunned Lebanon and the wider region and raised fears the country would plunge again into factional turmoil.
But Lebanese officials had said Hariri, who is a dual Lebanese-Saudi citizen, had been forced to resign by Saudi authorities and was unable to move or speak freely from Riyadh. Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, said Wednesday that Hariri was a “hostage,” and that his government would not accept such an “attack on Lebanese sovereignty.”
…But as Shiite Iran and Saudi Arabia, which is Sunni, have competed for influence in the region, the threat of upheaval in Lebanon intensified. Iran has long backed Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful political and military movement, and which is key to Iranian regional reach.
…For its part, Riyadh has sought to bolster Hariri and his Sunni bloc in Lebanon, and have fought what Saudi officials claim are Iranian proxy forces in Yemen. Iran denies having direct links to the Houthi forces in Yemen that drove out the Saudi-backed president in 2015.
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The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi movement said last week it had closed all air, land and seaports in Yemen to stem what it said was the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran.
“We have some 21 million people needing assistance and seven million of those are in famine-like conditions and rely completely on food aid,” U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said.
“The continued closure by the Saudi-led coalition of critical seaports and airports is aggravating an already dire humanitarian situation. I think it poses a critical threat to the lives of millions who are already struggling to survive.”
U.N. warns millions at risk in Yemen, urges Saudi coalition to open ports
Saudi critics and experts have called the unprecedented purge of top princes and businessmen a bold and risky move by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aimed at consolidating power as he keeps an eye on the throne, sidelining potential rivals and dismantling alliances built with other branches of the royal family.
…Saudi Attorney General Saud al-Mojeb said 208 people had been called in for questioning, and that seven were released without charge, leaving 201 in custody.
…The stunning purge began overnight Saturday, initially catching 11 princes and 38 officials, military officers and business leaders. They are being held at five-star hotels, including the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh.
…An estimated 1,700 individual bank accounts have been frozen.
…Based on investigations in the past three years, at least $100 billion has been misused through corruption and embezzlement.
…The government stressed that only personal accounts have been frozen, leaving businesses untouched.
Scores more Saudis detained in $100 billion corruption sweep – The Washington Post
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Prince Mohammed launched a military campaign in neighboring Yemen in March 2015. A Saudi-led coalition, acting on an invitation from the internationally-recognized government, has targeted the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in a war which has killed more than 10,000 people.
…Even before the conflict, Yemen was the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula and now millions of people there are facing famine and a cholera epidemic. The coalition denies it blocks commercial shipments of food, medicine and fuel.
…Prince Mohammed has helped lead a diplomatic campaign to isolate Qatar, saying Riyadh’s erstwhile ally backs terrorism and cozies up to Iran. Qatar rejects the accusations and says it is being punished for straying from its neighbors’ backing for authoritarian rulers.
…Qatar had incensed Riyadh by cheering Arab Spring uprisings against some autocratic Arab rulers.
…Prince Mohammed has also opened a new front in the proxy war with Iran by threatening Tehran’s ally Hezbollah and its home country Lebanon.
…Vision 2030 has begun to reduce a big state budget deficit with austerity measures but has not yet created major new sources of non-oil growth or jobs.
…Saudi Arabia adheres to an austere Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam, which bans gender mixing, concerts and cinemas.
Prince Mohammed’s ascent represents a social and cultural sea change, with power set to be passed to a much younger generation seemingly more in tune with young Saudis. In moves that reinforce that perception, women will be permitted to drive from next year and allowed to attend sports events.
The crown prince has also said the country will move to a more open and tolerant interpretation of Islam [apart from any Shiites associated with Iran, apparently…], and reforms have begun in areas once the exclusive domain of the clergy such as education, courts and the law. Saudi authorities have promoted elements of national identity that have no religious component or pre-date Islam.
Shifting sands: What is changing in Saudi Arabia?
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The crown prince is saying that until 1979 Saudi Arabia followed a moderate form of Islam that is tolerant and open, that it will now return to that era and destroy the destructive ideas of the past 30 years, and that people in Saudi Arabia will live a normal life.
For those of us who were too young at the time to remember, or not born yet, we are told that in the 1960s and 1970s women went about without covering their hair or wearing a black abaya, and even drove cars; that music and sports were taught at boys’ and girls’ schools; that there were rudimentary cinemas playing Arab and foreign movies; that Saudi TV and radio featured women, and broadcast songs by famous male and female singers; that men and women worked together and family members of both sexes got together without being accused of “mixing,” which has become a grave sin. These appear to be tales from a world beyond, but there are black and white pictures and films to prove it all.
After 30 years in a coma, the real Saudi ‘awakening’ begins now | Arab News
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The “Greater Jerusalem” legislation would put some settlements in the occupied West Bank, built on land Palestinians seek for a future state and viewed as illegal by most countries, under the jurisdiction of Jerusalem’s municipality.
U.S. pressure delays Israel’s ‘Greater Jerusalem’ bill: legislator
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Six Palestinian militants were killed on Monday when Israel blew up what it said was a tunnel being dug across the Gaza Strip border.
Six killed as Israel destroys Gaza tunnel
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The verses in question concern the passage in which Joshua leads the Israelites into Canaan. “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,” the text reads.
The meaning had been lost in English renderings, but recent translations by Professor Sir Colin Humphreys suggest they reference an eclipse. “Going back to the original Hebrew text, we determined that an alternative meaning could be that the sun and moon just stopped doing what they normally do: They stopped shining. In this context, the Hebrew words could be referring to a solar eclipse,” Humphreys explained.
By reading the hieroglyphs carved in the granite Merneptah Stele, an Egyptian text dating from the reigns of Pharaoh Merneptah and his son Ramesses the Great, historians were able to date the Israelites’ presence in Canaan to between 1500 B.C. and 1050 B.C.
The breakthrough in comparing the two texts was made by backdating not only total solar eclipses using astronomical patterns but also annual eclipses in which the sun does not completely cover the moon but creates a distinctive ring of fire. From the calculations, which took into account the fluctuations in Earth’s orbit and rotation, Humphreys and his team posited that the only annual eclipse that could have taken place while the Israelites were in Canaan occurred in 1207 B.C.
Wild!
Icarda’s most vital project — a seed bank containing 155,000 varieties of the region’s main crops, a sort of agricultural archive of the Fertile Crescent — faced extinction.
But the researchers at Icarda had a backup copy. Beginning in 2008, long before the war, Icarda had begun to send seed samples — “accessions” as they are called — to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the so-called doomsday vault, burrowed into the side of a mountain on a Norwegian island above the Arctic Circle. It was standard procedure, in case anything happened.
War happened. In 2015, as Aleppo disintegrated, Icarda’s scientists borrowed some of the seeds they had stored in Svalbard and began building anew. This time, they spread out, setting up one seed bank in Morocco and another just across Syria’s border with Lebanon in this vast valley of cypress and grapes known as the Bekaa.
…Mr. Shehadeh says, [he] is why he is obsessed with the wild relatives of the seeds that most farmers plant today. He eschews genetically modified seeds. He wants instead to tap the riches of those wild ancestors, which are often hardy and better adapted to harsh climates. “They’re the good stock,” he said.
He hunts for the genetic traits that he says will be most useful in the future: resistance to pests or blistering winds, or the ability to endure in intensely hot summers. He tries to select for those traits and breeds them into the next generation of seeds — in the very soil and air where they have always been grown.
…Icarda’s entire collection houses seeds that have sustained the people of the Middle East for centuries, including some 14,700 varieties of bread wheat, 32,000 varieties of barley, and nearly 16,000 varieties of chickpea, the key component of falafel. The Lebanon seed bank houses about 39,000 accessions, and Morocco, another 32,000. Most of it is backed up in Svalbard.
In Sudan, Icarda has introduced a wheat variety it hopes will be more resistant to drought and heat. It is breeding a fava bean variety that can withstand a parasitic weed and lentils that can mature in a short growing season.
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Powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged a “moderate, open” Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, breaking with ultra-conservative clerics in favour of an image catering to foreign investors and Saudi youth.
“We are returning to what we were before — a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world,” he said at an economic forum in Riyadh.
Crown Prince pledges a ‘moderate’ Saudi Arabia
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An Afghan Army unit in the south of the country was almost completely wiped out on Thursday, defense officials said, in a Taliban attack that used what is becoming one of the group’s deadliest tactics: packing vehicles captured from security forces with explosives and driving them into military and police compounds.
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Survivors of Israeli live fire speak about Israel’s ‘kneecapping’ practice of shooting youth in their lower limbs.
How Israel is disabling Palestinian teenagers | Israel | Al Jazeera
sigh….
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