The Defense Department announced Secretary Lloyd Austin held a phone call with Andrei Belousov, his Russian counterpart, on Tuesday. Austin has not spoken with a Russian defense minister since his call with Belousov’s predecessor more than a year ago. Both sides acknowledged that the Pentagon chief initiated the contact. This appears to be an effort by Austin to ease tensions over the Ukraine proxy war. Following the firing of an American missile by Kiev’s forces which killed Russians in Crimea, Moscow has vowed a response. Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters about...
High Court Rules Ultra-Orthodox Men Are Subject to Draft, Threatening Netanyahu’s Coalition
Israel’s high court ruled that men in the ultra-Orthodox community are subject to conscription on Tuesday. The community, known as the Haredim, is politically powerful, subsidized by the citizenry, and until now had been unaffected by the mass mandatory enlistment. This is a heavily contentious issue as more than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded in Gaza, and the ruling could spell trouble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fragile ruling coalition. The court’s decree, which was unanimously supported by all nine justices, says “At the height of a difficult...
IDF Soldier Killed, 16 Injured During West Bank Refugee Camp Raid
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday that 1 soldier was killed and 16 others wounded in roadside bomb explosions during an overnight raid on the northern West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp. Violence has surged under the Israeli occupation, as the IDF along with illegal settlers have killed over 550 Palestinians, including nearly 140 children, since the war on the besieged Gaza Strip began. The IDF claims it was carrying out the raid around midnight between Wednesday and Thursday in search of members of a Hamas network operating in the city of Jenin as well as the adjacent camp....
Report: US Government Spies on Thousands of Americans’ Mail Every Year
The US Postal Service (USPS) has been spying on thousands of Americans’ mail every year for a decade, including letters and parcels, and provided citizens’ information to police and elements of the national security apparatus, a Washington Post investigation found. Tens of thousands of requests have been submitted to the USPS since 2015. Following such requests from the IRS, FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other agencies, the USPS has shared names, addresses, and other findings from the exteriors of Americans’ packages and envelopes without court orders. The surveillance...
Moscow Signals It May Downgrade Relations With the West
Amid recent escalations in the Ukraine proxy war, the Russian Federation is considering downgrading relations with the West, though no decision has been made yet. This comes less than a week after Kiev launched long-range missile strikes on Crimea, leaving four Russians dead and well over 100 wounded. Moscow vowed “retaliatory measures” would follow. Downgrading ties with the West as a result of NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine would be unprecedented. At the height of the previous Cold War, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, relations between the two nuclear superpowers were never abandoned....
EU Approves Military Aid to Ukraine Drawn From Frozen Russian Assets
European Union foreign ministers have approved, for the first time, the transfer of approximately €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in military and financial aid to Kiev, using interest profits drawn from frozen Russian central bank assets.
New Legal Powers for Settlers Facilitate West Bank Annexation
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) quietly issued an order which transfers substantial legal powers over the occupied West Bank to Settlements Administration bureaucrats working under Israel’s extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich, The Guardian reports. This paves the way for annexation of the territory, illegally occupied since 1967, where millions of Palestinian Muslims and Christians live. This objective, which will eliminate the potential for a two-state solution, has been long sought by Smotrich and other far-right elements in Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition. Posted on...
IDF Kills Over 100 Palestinians in Weekend Strikes Across Gaza Strip
Tel Aviv carried out several attacks across the Gaza Strip this weekend. On Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 100 Palestinians were killed, along with 169 others wounded, in 24 hours amidst various strikes. This was the deadliest day in the Strip since the June 8 massacre on the Nuseirat refugee camp, which slaughtered at least 274 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more. A UN facility was hit on Sunday, killing at least four people. On Friday, the IDF bombarded areas in southern Gaza near the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) base at the al-Mawasi camp, a location...