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South Africa has criticized Australian home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s offer to fast-track the visas of its white African farmers, saying his comments on the supposed threat to their lives and land were “sad” and “regrettable”. A spokesperson for international relations minister Lindiwe Sisulu, said: “There is no need to fear … we want to say to the world that we are engaged in a process of land redistribution which is very important to address the imbalances of the past. But it is going to be done legally, and with due consideration of the economic impact and impact on individuals.”

DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria — Standing on a windswept mound, Brig. Gen. Jonathan Braga pointed to the spot just a mile away from where Russian mercenaries and fighters loyal to the Syrian government fired at his soldiers. "Those artillery rounds could have landed and killed Americans, and that's why we continue to prepare our defenses," said Braga, the director of operations for the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition. U.S. troops who came under fire from Russian mercenaries prepare for more attacks Only steps away sits a sprawling oil and gas refinery that American forces captured from ISIS last year and that is...

I know we constantly lament about all the corruption that has gone completely unpunished and we yearn for justice to be done someday soon. Here is a great and seemingly very weary man who last night told the truth about the whole ugly governmental affair ……… Joe DiGenova. A very excellent 4 minutes and 16 seconds.

Rand Paul launched a typically obnoxious attack on Gina Haspel today. Here is one account: “To really appoint the head cheerleader for waterboarding to be head of the CIA? How can you trust somebody who did that to be in charge of the CIA,” Paul wondered, adding, “To read of her glee during the waterboarding is just absolutely appalling.” Paul was referring to an account of a waterboarding session with suspected al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah, who was subjected to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques now widely considered to be torture. ., . The problem is that this conduct appears to...

the White House held a Middle East summit that demonstrated Tillerson’s basic assumptions have the problems of the Middle East precisely backwards.Under the leadership of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, along with Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s senior negotiator, Israeli officials sat in the White House for the first time with Arab officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar. Representatives from Egypt and Jordan, with which Israel enjoys open diplomatic relations, were also in attendance. Canadian and European officials participated as well. Although they were invited, the Palestinians chose to boycott the conference. Their boycott was...

A senior Kurdish official who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State group policy in northern Syria has been found dead in his apartment, Kurdish officials said Thursday. Omar Alloush's death is a blow to the post-IS efforts in the region, as he played a key role in mediating between Arabs and Kurds and in shaping the U.S. policy in the area. The main Kurdish party in Syria said Thursday the death of Alloush is under investigation and officials suspect foul play.

Islamic groups in Germany Thursday criticised a lack of solidarity and support over a spate of attacks on Muslims and mosques carried out by right-wing extremists and “terrorist” groups. They said Muslims were being made to feel that “they carry partial blame because, after their mosques have been desecrated by neo-Nazis using pig heads and graffiti of crosses, they are now also being attacked by foreign terrorist groups”. Last weekend saw a spate of arson and vandalism attacks targeting Turkish-German mosques, cultural institutions and businesses, some of which were claimed in online statements by militant pro-Kurdish groups angered by the...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack. Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia’s General Staff, said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack against civilians and blame it on the Syrian army. He said the United States intended to use the fake attack as a pretext to bomb the government quarter in nearby...

The Trump administration accused Russia on Thursday of engineering a series of cyberattacks that targeted American and European nuclear power plants and water and electric systems, and could have sabotaged or shut power plants off at will. United States officials and private security firms saw the attacks as a signal by Moscow that it could disrupt the West’s critical facilities in the event of a conflict. They said the strikes accelerated in late 2015, at the same time the Russian interference in the American election was underway. The attackers successfully had compromised some operators in North America and Europe by...

South Africa has dismissed allegations its white farmers are "persecuted" after an Australian minister said they needed help from a "civilised" country.Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said he was exploring giving South Africa's white farmers access to fast-track visas on humanitarian grounds. The suggestion was made amid calls to transfer land ownership from white to black farmers in South Africa, and fears over the number of farm killings.But South Africa says it is ridiculous.Government spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya told the BBC there was no reason for any country in the world to suspect a section of the South African population was...

Interestingly Reuters is continuing the McCabe narrative with an article quoting an unnamed FBI official who urges Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to fire Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Given the rather expansive wealth of McCabe the angle of preserving his pension seems more than a little odd. The ‘source’ for the Reuters article could likely be former FBI Director James Comey. The recommendation to fire McCabe was based on a referral to the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) by the Justice Department’s inspector general Michael Horowitz. The IG felt McCabe misled OIG investigators about his communications with Devlin...

A militia in Mali says it has recovered weapons and a vehicle abandoned by US special forces during a deadly ambush in Niger last year, and is prepared to return them to the Americans. The Tuareg rebel group says it seized the battered four-wheel-drive and two rifles during clashes with "bandits" on the Mali-Niger border. Four members of the US special forces were killed in last year's raid. An offshoot of the Islamic State (IS) group said it carried out the attack. In a statement, the MSA-GATIA militia group said it captured the materiel from unidentified "armed bandits" on the...

It would be hard to point to any noteworthy Mideast initiative or achievement by ousted U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The Kurds surely won’t have fond memories of the agreements he recently reached with Turkey, which were trumpeted by the Turkish media on Tuesday. According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the U.S. and Turkey agreed that they will jointly supervise security in the Syrian city of Manbij, and that the Kurdish troops which captured the city in 2016 will relocate to the eastern side of the Euphrates River. Tillerson negotiated this agreement with his Turkish colleagues last month.Admittedly,...

Thousands of people fled the besieged area of Eastern Ghouta on Thursday as Syrian forces advanced into the rebel-held enclave on the edge of Damascus, state TV and monitoring groups reported. The Syrian news agency SANA said more than 10,000 had escaped from the town of Hamoriya to government-controlled parts of the Syrian capital. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) put the figure at more than 12,500.Images on state TV showed hundreds of people carring their belongings out the enclave on foot and in the back of pickup trucks. Soldiers were seen in the footage, but there were...

Saudi Arabia's future king has hidden the whereabouts of his mother from his father and the public, according to U.S. officials. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has given his father, King Salman, a number of different explanations for her absence, say 14 current and former U.S. officials who spoke to NBC on condition of anonymity. Among the fabrications he is said to have created is that she is receiving medical treatment abroad. Years of intelligence have led U.S. officials to believe that the Saudi heir, who is now 32, is concealing his mother's location. The officials say that the crown...

When it comes to Holocaust remembrance, Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz looks like the Anti-Poland. Whereas Poland has hunkered down behind a new Holocaust law saying the country was a victim of the Nazis, not a Holocaust perpetrator, Kurz said in an extraordinary speech on Monday that, yes, Austria was a victim, but it was equally a perpetrator. The speech is also important in light of what is going on in Poland, where Polish legislators enacted a law making it illegal and a punishable crime to say that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust. A similar refrain was heard in Austria...

A California couple died in a car crash Tuesday after fleeing from immigration officials, police said. Santo Garcia, 35, and Marcelina Profecto, 33, died at the scene in rural Kern County after their speeding SUV crashed into a power pole and overturned , Delano police said. Police determined the couple was fleeing from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who tried to stop their vehicle. The driver pulled over, but then began speeding after the agents flashed their emergency lights and got out of their vehicle, police said. The couple, who has six children, was out looking for work when they...

Comparing Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Nazi ruler Adolf Hitler, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud accused his regional foe of trying "to expand" and "create his own project in the Middle East." The monarch then said he would not hesitate to attain nuclear capabilities if he suspected Iran was doing the same. ... While Iran has always maintained its nuclear program was solely for energy purposes, rival nations such as the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia have thought otherwise. The 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saw Iran agree to...

Shortened title. Full title: SECRET EMPIRES: Joe Biden and John Kerry’s Sons’ Firm Struck Billion-Dollar Deal with the Chinese Government 10 Days After Biden Trip to China The private equity firm of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden inked a billion-dollar deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China just 10 days after the father and son flew to China in 2013. The Biden bombshell is one of many revealed in a new investigative book Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends by Government Accountability Institute President and...

Regardless, the whole crux of their argument is that banning so-called assault weapons, expanded background checks, waiting period etc. will save lives. It won’t do that, and the anti-gun Left knows it. So, thanks to Vox for actually showing the end game of the Democratic agenda on firearms, which is that they really just want to ban guns. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have cited the Australian model on gun control. Clinton even went so far as to say the Supreme Court got the Second Amendment wrong in 2016. The level of violence in Europe, which is often cited by...