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F-16 jet was shot down on Saturday over northern Israel, prompting retaliation Israeli forces launched a series of bombardments against bases in Syria But Benjamin Netanyahu backed down after a call from Putin, it is reported Putin warned him against escalating the conflict in the region after Russia has spent years propping up the Assad regime Vladimir Putin warned Benjamin Netanyahu to back off from military strikes in Syria after an Israeli warplane was shot down in the region on Saturday. The Russian President told Netanyahu in a phone call on Saturday evening to avoid a course of action that...

“Hungary will not become an immigrant country, is has never admitted and will never admit illegal immigrants”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in Bratislava at a press conference following his meeting with Slovakian State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and Acting Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok on Tuesday. Hungary’s chief diplomat was reacting to a statement by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel over the weekend according to which “they have given the solidarity-rejecting Visegrád countries an ultimatum” in view of which if a consensus is not achieved in the council of EU member...

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a declared effort to "fight fundamentalism" and "preserve national cohesion," has promised to "lay the groundwork for the entire reorganization of Islam in France." According to Macron, the plan, similar in ambition to Austria's Islam Law, is aimed at seeking to "better integrate" Islam in France in order to "place it in a more peaceful relationship with the state." A key priority is to reduce outside interference by restricting foreign funding for mosques, imams and Muslim organizations in France. The plan's overall objective is to ensure that French law takes precedence over Islamic law for...

The man who set off pressure cooker bombs in New York and New Jersey in 2016 has been sentenced to life. Ahmad Khan Rahimi injured 30 people when he set off a bomb in Manhattan. The Afghan-born US citizen, who was captured after a shootout with police, told the court that he does not "harbour hate for anyone". According to federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old has not shown remorse and has attempted to radicalise others in prison to support Islamic State. They said that Rahimi had tried to influence his fellow inmates with terrorist propaganda, including speeches from deceased al-Qaeda leaders...

The Conflict Intelligence Team found the Russians "may have fought alongside pro-Russia separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine prior to joining the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and other insurgents challenging Assad's rule in Syria." The group also found Russians killed "appeared to have joined the Wagner Group, a private paramilitary company, before traveling to fight in Syria. Last October, ISIS released a video showing two Russian-speaking men the militants claimed to have captured, and subsequent research showed the two men were likely Wagner Group members fighting in Syria." "While the total number of 'Wagner' operatives killed in...

Putin mentioned the call with Trump at the start of his meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday. He said: "Naturally we spoke about the Palestinian-Israeli settlement" and told Abbas: "I would like to convey to you his best wishes." Putin met Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu exactly two weeks ago in Moscow. Russia has managed to maintain robust relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority government, as well as Israeli rivals Syria and Iran.

Iran unveiled a series of new homemade nuclear-capable ballistic missiles during military parades held over the weekend, a move that experts view as a bid to bolster the hardline ruling regime as dissidents continue efforts to stir protest. On the heels of an encounter between an Iranian drone and Israeli forces, Iranian leaders showcased their ballistic missile capabilities, which includes a nuclear-capable medium-range missile that appears to share similarities with North Korean technology, according to experts. The nuclear-capable missile can strike Israel even when fired from Iranian territory, raising concerns about an impending conflict between Tehran and the Jewish state that...

A Palestinian refugee camp has been under siege for more than 1,660 days. Hundreds of the camp residents have been killed, while tens of thousands have been forced to flee from their homes. Those who have remained in the camp -- mostly the elderly, women and children -- live in unspeakable sanitary conditions and drink polluted water. More than 200 Palestinians from the camp, which has been under siege since 2103, have died as a result of lack of food or medicine. The conditions in the refugee camp, by any standard, are horrific. Why have most of us not heard...

U.N. Human Rights Council singled out for anti-Israel, anti-Semitic action Congress is laying the groundwork to remove America from a United Nations human rights body that lawmakers claim uses American taxpayer funds to unduly target Israel for criticism and promote anti-Semitism, according to officials familiar with the effort. A new congressional resolution gathering support among lawmakers calls out the U.N. Human Rights Council, or UNHRC, for what many allege is its virulently anti-Israel bias and urges the body to enact massive reforms or face a cut off of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), a member...

On December 8, 2017, the leader of Iraq’s Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Qais al-Khazali paid a visit to the Lebanese-Israeli border to inspect Lebanese “Hezbollah” resistance positions and to issue a threat to the southern neighbor. In a leaked video, he was shown as saying: “We are here with ‘Hezbollah’ and we announce our complete readiness to stand side by side with the Lebanese people and Palestinian cause against the Israeli occupation.” Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, or Khazali Network, is affiliated with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). -excerpt- His statement however demonstrated the common interests of pro-Iran regional militias to allow Tehran...

US President Donald Trump today unveiled a US$ 4 trillion annual budget for the fiscal 2019 beginning October 1, proposing US$ 256 million in civilian assistance and US$ 80 million in military aid to Pakistan. The proposal of aid to Pakistan comes weeks after Trump administration suspended nearly US$ 2 billion in security assistance to Islamabad due to its inability to take action against terrorist groups operating from its soil. The White House has said it would consider lifting the freeze if it sees action by Pakistan against terrorist groups. The budgetary proposal says that the military aid depends on...

Feb 11 is normally a day for rallies all over the country in Iran. It is the anniversary of the Islamic revolution. All over the country, people boycotted the rallies. The regime did their best to scare people in participating, threatening punishment & threatening people's jobs for not participating. School children & their teachers were forced to participate. Many of those who were forced were reluctant to join in, as videos showed only a small group answering to the calls for chants on loudspeakers. As usual, the regime sent buses to transport people to rallies in other cities to try...

WASHINGTON—The Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) have launched a national advocacy campaign encouraging U.S. Senators to block a planned sale of U.S. F-35 stealth fighters to Turkey’s increasingly erratic and anti-American Erdogan regime. The ANCA and Hellenic American Leadership Council have joined forces to launch a grassroots campaign to block the impending F-35 sale to Turkey (Graphic: ANCA) This joint Hellenic-Armenian American initiative – the most recent in a series of ANCA-HALC advocacy campaigns – warns Senators against the dangers of providing Erdogan with advanced weapons that he may turn against our...

The IDF soldier, in the near-lynch in Jenin earlier on Monday, told family members that his weapon was taken by Palestinian Authority policemen, and it was the policemen that initiated the attack on them, according to a Walla News report. The family members also told Walla, that the soldier told them that the Palestinian Authority police were not helping them escape the lynch mob, as was reported in the Israeli media. In the end, the female soldier managed to pepper spray their attackers, and the male soldier then managed to drive off to the checkpoint.

President Donald Trump questioned Israel’s interest in making peace with the Palestinians in an interview published Sunday, spotlighting its West Bank settlements as a complicating factor. In the interview in the Israel Hayom daily, Trump also cast doubt on the Palestinians’ desire to strike a deal. But his comments about Israel mark rare criticism from a president who has publicly sparred with the Palestinians while forging warm ties with Israel ahead of the expected presentation of a US peace outline. “Right now, I would say the Palestinians are not looking to make peace, they are not looking to make peace....

SUTTON PLACE, Manhattan (WABC) -- The wife of Donald Trump Jr. was taken to a New York City hospital Monday after she opened an envelope containing an unknown white powder. The letter was addressed to Donald Trump Jr. and sent to the couple's apartment on East 54th Street in Manhattan. His wife, Vanessa, opened the letter just after 10 a.m. She and two other people were decontaminated by firefighters at the scene and taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation. They appear to be fine, officials said. Police and Secret Service agents are at the scene investigating. This is a...

Thanks to the improving economy, something very unusual is going on in American politics. American voters are separating the personal from the political in perhaps the most significant way ever. President Donald Trump's overall approval rating in most polls is creeping up lately, yet it remains at historically weak levels for a president at this stage in his first term. But at the same time, voters are starting to become more positive about the economy and more willing to give Trump the credit for it. Several polls are noting this trend, but it's most clear in the latest Quinnipiac College...

The reference to American technology falling into Iranian hands refers to December 2011, when an American stealth drone operating from Afghanistan crashed in Iran. Rather than bomb the downed drone so the Iranians couldn’t get the cutting edge design and technology, the Obama administration did nothing.

Israel obliterates Syrian and Iranian targets following brazen UAV intrusion. The shadow war between Israel and Iran burst into open warfare over the weekend with a brazen and reckless Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intrusion into Israeli airspace. The drama unfolded on Saturday at 4:25 a.m. when an Iranian reconnaissance drone, believed to be a knockoff of the American RQ-170 Sentinel UAV, penetrated into Israeli airspace for approximately 90 seconds before being shot down by an Israeli Apache attack helicopter of the 113th Squadron near the Israeli town of Bet Shean in the Jordan Valley. Israeli intelligence had been monitoring...

Israel is counting on Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep confrontations with Iran and Syria from spiraling into war as the Trump administration mostly watches from the sidelines, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “The American part of the equation is to back us up,” but the U.S. currently “has almost no leverage on the ground,” Michael Oren, Netanyahu’s deputy minister for public diplomacy and a former ambassador to Washington, said in a phone interview Sunday. “America did not ante up in Syria. It’s not in the game.”