Nearly half of the Senate's Democratic caucus has called on President Joe Biden to conduct an independent probe into the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a US citizen who was shot dead by Israeli troops while reporting from the occupied West Bank last month.
US News The State Department will pay employees who alleged they suffer from ‘Havana Syndrne’ six-figure payouts. State is making the payments in accordance with the HAVANA Act. [Link] Haiti At least eight prisoners died from starvation in a prison in Haiti. [Link] Ukraine President Biden authorized a new $450 million weapons package for Ukraine that includes more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, patrol boats, and tactical vehicles. [Link] Ukraine had received the delivery of US-provided rocket systems, known as High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. [Link] Russian President...
In a clear message to Tehran, an American B-52 flew over the Persian Gulf as soon as Joe Biden entered the White House. Biden promised to return the U.S. to the Iran nuclear deal. But indirect talks to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which began last April, have stalled for three months without a resolution in sight. Counting on the reliable support of Biden and bipartisan Iran hawks in Congress, the nuclear-armed Israeli apartheid regime intends to kill the deal entirely. Tehran, a decades-long signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, is neither seeking nor has...
US News The Biden administration announced a change in US military policy that bans the use of anti-personnel land mines everywhere in the world, except for the Korean Peninsula. [Link] Almost 1,400 New York Army National Guard Soldiers are deploying to East Africa and Kuwait. [Link] SpaceX launched a German military satellite into space. [Link] Ukraine The British Defense Ministry backed the Ukrainian claim that Ukrainian forces sunk a Russian tugboat with US-made Harpoon missiles. [Link] German self-propelled howitzers arrived in Ukraine in the first delivery of heavy weapons. [Link] In...
US News President Joe Biden said he is considering a temporary gas tax holiday. The tax reduction would cut gas prices by 18.4 cents per gallon. [Link] Biden said rebate cards are also being considered. [Link] Miami police were offering $50 for handguns, $100 for shotguns and $150 for “high-powered” rifles such as AK-47s or AR-15s in a gun buyback drive. The city says it will transfer the weapons to Ukraine to aid the war effort. [Link] Space X is working with the Department of Defense on a rocket-launched troop movement system that can deploy forces anywhere in the work within hours....
President Joe Biden is set to meet with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), according to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. The statement from the cabinet-level official appears to contradict what the president said last week. Biden will make a trip to the Middle East next month, where he will first stop in Israel before attending a meeting of regional leaders hosted by Saudi Arabia. Though the president said last week that he would not meet with the crown prince during the summit in Jeddah, the White House has since reversed course. Speaking to CNN on Sunday,...
Colombia Left-wing ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro won Colombia's presidential election. [Link] Assange Extradition Australia is lobbying the US behind the scenes to secure the freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. [Link] Russia Ukraine’s Parliament passed two bills that will restrict Russian music and books. If President Volodymyr Zelensky signs the legislation, it will be a significant step forward in Kiev’s attempt to purge the Russian culture. [Link] The Washington Post reports the White House is planning for an extended conflict in Ukraine. Leaders in NATO, the UK and Germany have...
Assange British Home Secretary Priti Patel on Friday signed an extradition order to send Julian Assange to stand trial in America. [Link] Julian’s wife Stella vowed to fight the order. "We're going to fight this. We're going to use every appeal avenue," Stella Assange told reporters, calling the decision a "travesty". "I'm going to spend every waking hour fighting for Julian until he is free, until justice is served." [Link] Assange's brother said the Assange legal team's appeal to London's High Court of the decision to extradite him to the United States would include new information...
US News The Senate Armed Services Committee has added $45 billion to President Joe Biden’s military spending plans in its annual defense policy bill. This week’s boost brings the bill’s topline budget figure to $847 billion. [Link] A major bill expanding health care and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic military burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan passed the US Senate. [Link] The House Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee approved a budget of $2.9 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), $417 million higher than the White House’s original budget...
US News Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said the link between domestic terror attacks and easy access to powerful guns is “beyond dispute.” [Link] World News The world’s nine nuclear-armed countries spent $82.4 billion upgrading their atomic weaponry in 2021, eight percent more than the year before. [Link] According to the UN, 100 million people are forcibly displaced. [Link] Russia Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that some Biden administration officials are privately expressing concern that sanctions on Russia are worsening the global food crisis, exacerbating inflation, and...
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