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“To some degree this is not fair, I think it’s important to note,” Obama said. “Because if you think about Western industrial development before we knew anything about climate change, they used enormous amounts of carbon energy.”

Last week’s unanimous passage of a Senate bill making it easier for 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia and other foreign terror sponsors was widely heralded as a major victory. It’s more of a cruel hoax. It turns out that just before the vote, Sen. Charles Schumer and other proponents of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act stuffed an amendment into the final draft allowing the attorney general and secretary of state to stop any litigation against the Saudis in its tracks.

Littoral Combat Ships and F-18 Super-Hornet jets will probably top Vietnam’s shopping list for US-made weapons now that President Barack Obama has lifted Washington’s 50-year-old arms embargo on Hanoi, former US diplomat Jim Jatras told Sputnik. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Obama announced in Hanoi on Monday the lifting of the US embargo on Vietnam during his three-day visit. "Among the systems Hanoi reportedly is interested in are Lockheed Martin’s F-16 jets, Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet jets, competing littoral combat ship designs from Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, and precision-guidance munitions from Raytheon and Boeing," Jatras said on Tuesday. Jatras dismissed Obama’s...

Russia has started the multi-year program to upgrade Project 949A (Antey-class, NATO reporting name: Oscar II) nuclear-powered submarines armed with cruise missiles (SSGN), according to a source in Russian defense industry. "The upgraded Project 949A submarines will be designated as Project 949AM (M stands for upgraded, Modernizirovannaya). The number of cruise missiles is planned to be increased from 24 to 72 and 3M45 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) cruise anti-ship missiles (ASM) are to be replaced by a mix of 3M55 Onyx (SS-N-26 Strobile) ASM and 3M54 Kalibr (SS-N-27 Sizzler) ASM/land-attack missiles. The upgrade of Project 949A SSGNs does not require drastic...

TAMPA — Packed with robots and trucks and guns and drones, the Tampa Convention Center's exhibition hall this week has been transformed into a showroom for the latest in war gadgets. It's all part of the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, a major annual confab that brings military commanders together with defense contractors to figure out what commandos need in a dangerous and ever-changing world. The anchor, of course, is U.S. Special Operations Command, which has an annual budget of several billion dollars to spend on commando-specific goods and services. This year, about 350 companies set up shop at the...

EgyptAir Flight 804 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, 2016 had been tagged two years ago with graffiti that read in Arabic “We will bring this plane down.” The words “traitor” and “murderer” were also written in messages directed at Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Security officials attributed the graffiti to the work of aviation workers at Cairo Airport who were protesting former General el-Sisi after he ousted the elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

More than 300 prominent historians, including Simon Schama and Niall Ferguson, are warning voters that if they choose to leave the European Union on 23 June they will condemn Britain to irrelevance. In a letter to the Guardian, the academics and writers argue that the referendum offers a chance to underscore the “irreplaceable role” Britain has played, and should continue to play, in Europe’s history. “As historians of Britain and of Europe, we believe that Britain has had in the past, and will have in the future, an irreplaceable role to play in Europe,” the letter says. “On 23 June,...

Moderate Malay­sians are making a stand against the unilateral conversion of children, urging that they be allowed to hold on to their original faith until they can decide for themselves at age 18. Businessman and moderation activist Anas Zubedy said a child’s religion must be agreed on by both parents. “Unilateral conversions should not be allowed for whatever religion, be it Islam, Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism. “Should a parent convert to a religion different from that at the time of marriage, especially during dissolution of the marriage, the children should remain in the original faith until they turn 18,” he...

Britain could “liberate Europe” for a second time in a century by voting for Brexit on June 23, triggering a “patriotic spring” across the continent and an outpouring of populist discontent against Brussels, Geert Wilders, the right-wing Dutch populist, has claimed.

Four years ago, one of China’s largest agricultural importers sent representatives to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., hoping that meetings with elite party officials might yield business opportunities. The company, the Dandong Port Group, was particularly focused on the governors in attendance, according to an interview with Dandong’s general counsel broadcast by Chinese state television. But now, the company’s widening influence is coming under scrutiny by federal prosecutors, who are examining the relationship between Dandong’s wealthy and connected chairman, Wang Wenliang, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, a Democrat who was elected in 2013. A federal law enforcement...

Just beyond the shadows of the White House and U.S. Capitol, three illegal alien members of the notorious Salvadorian street gang MS-13 were convicted last Friday of a slew of violent crimes including openly shooting one guy and viciously stabbing and hacking up another, as well as engaging in racketeering, weapons crimes, and other various no good, very bad things. Jorge Enrique Moreno-Aguilar (aka Flaco and Castigato), Juan Alberto Ortiz-Orellana (aka Chele and Furia) and Minor Perez-Chach (aka Minor Chach-Perez, Little Bad and Bryant Sacarias), all from Maryland, were convicted last week in the U.S. District Court in Maryland. From...

Federal officials arrested a young New York City man today for allegedly supporting ISIS - the culmination of an elaborate FBI and NYPD sting operation in which the 22-year-old was duped by at least four undercover law enforcement agents, according to court documents. Bronx resident Sajmir Alimehmeti was arrested before dawn this morning without incident. A criminal complaint filed by the Department of Justice alleges that he helped a person he believed to be an ISIS recruit - who was in fact working for federal authorities - travel to Syria to fight with ISIS by giving advice and helping the...

Ahmad Jannati has been chosen to lead Iran’s new assembly of experts, the body which oversees the work of the country’s supreme leader and will elect his successor. Jannati was voted chairman of the 88-member Assembly with 51 votes. The 90-year-old is said to be dismissive of President Hassan Rouhani and his attempts to end Iran’s global isolation by normalizing ties with the West. He is also the leader of the Guardian Council, a hardline vetting body that disqualified thousands of reformists from standing in February’s elections for the assembly and parliament. …

Full title: Ret. Navy Commander: Gitmo Has Not Led to Terror Recruiting Anymore Than a Movie Caused Benghazi Attack Commander Kirk Lippold, retired from the U.S. Navy, testified in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday, insisting that Guantanamo Bay remain open for business. “Keeping Guantanamo open is more important now than ever,” Lippold warned. The terror detention facility, which has held almost 800 terrorist detainees since 2002 and today holds only 80, has been targeted for closure by President Obama, who argues the prison is “contrary to our values.” Other social activists have demanded the...

<p>The Army on Tuesday provided a behind the scenes look at the prosecution of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, releasing pages of internal court communications that show the defense believes it is hamstrung in responding to Donald Trump’s charge that their client is a traitor.</p>

A Swedish police report into rape and sexual assault committed by migrants has blamed “Nordic alcohol culture,” “ignorance” and the “non-traditional gender roles” of European women for the growing problem. The report notes that Sweden has the worst rates of physical and sexual violence committed against women in the European Union (EU), according to a survey by the EU’s rights agency.

Kurdish-Arab forces launched a major assault against the Islamic State group in Syria's Raqa province Tuesday and Iraqi forces advanced on it in Fallujah, piling pressure on the jihadists in two strongholds. The twin offensives marked some of the most serious ground efforts against IS since the group declared its self-styled "caliphate" straddling the Syrian-Iraqi border in 2014.

Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has tapped two major backers of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to be members of the DNC platform committee after reports emerged that Sanders wants to revamp the platform to highlight the issue of Palestinian rights. Sanders picked James Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute in Washington, and Cornel West, a philosopher and anti-Israel activist, to fill two of his five slots on the 15-member platform as part of his plans to revise the Democratic Party’s stance on relations with Israel. West is a vociferous critic of Israel who has called the Gaza Strip...

An Indian reservation along the Mexican border is prohibiting the Border Patrol from entering its land, which is a notorious smuggling corridor determined by the U.S. government to be a “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).” Homeland Security sources tell Judicial Watch that the road in the southeast corner of the reservation has been cordoned off by a barbed wired gate to keep officers out. A hand-written cardboard sign reading “Closed, Do Not Open” has been posted on the fence. “This is the location used most for trafficking drugs into the country,” a Border Patrol source told JW, adding...

Hillary Clinton is urging the White House to reject Norwegian Air’s application to fly to the United States over questions about its labor practices, adding her voice to a growing chorus of criticism surrounding the low-cost air carrier. .... Norwegian Air has for years been seeking access to more airports in the U.S. and European Union, by establishing a subsidiary — Norwegian Air International — in Ireland, a member of the EU. The Department of Transportation (DOT) tentatively approved the application last month. But critics have slammed the company for attempting to skirt more stringent Norwegian labor and tax laws...