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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian authorities rushed to evacuate people from more than 10 villages in the region of Ryazan on Wednesday after a blaze broke out at an ammunition depot, sending thick smoke belching into the air, the Interfax news agency reported. Munitions could be heard detonating at the depot in footage circulated on social media. A witness in one of the videos said shrapnel and ash was falling from the sky.

Today's top stories 06.10.20; 1) Palestinian Islamists launched a rocket toward Israel's southern communities, last night; the first such attack since September the 16th.2) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan singles out Israel, Cyprus and Syria as the root obstacles to global peace and tranquility.3) Armenia claims Israel pledged to suspend weapons sales to Azerbaijan; sophisticated weaponry which granted the latter a clear qualitative military edge in the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

“To the people of Lebanon, Israel means you no harm. But Iran does.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the annual forum of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Tuesday, September 29, 2020. In his speech from Jerusalem (due to Covid-19, worldwide leaders delivered their speeches via videos, not in person in New York City), he devoted the lion’s share of the time to the threat Iran poses to the international community and especially in the Middle East. He said that, “Iran is the greatest enemy of peace.” He also pointed out on a large map, the location in Beirut where...

Florida's Hispanic voters are fleeing the Democratic Party and there's little indication that the trend might reverse post-2020. MIAMI, Fla. — Democrats are on track to lose Florida in November, and there’s little indication that the Sunshine State will turn reliably bluefor the foreseeable future.As of this writing, RealClearPolitics’ latest aggregate of Florida polls shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by about two points, well within the margin of error for most polls. This time four years ago, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was up by three points and still lost the state’s 29 critical...

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Gina Haspel is personally blocking the declassification and release of key Russiagate documents in the hopes that President Donald Trump will lose his re-election bid, multiple senior U.S. officials told The Federalist. The officials said Haspel, who served under former CIA Director John Brennan as the spy agency’s station chief in London in 2016 and 2017, is concerned that the declassification and release of documents detailing what the CIA was doing during the 2016 election and the 2017 transition could embarrass the CIA and potentially even implicate Haspel herself. “Haspel and [FBI Director Christopher] Wray...

Russia's ambassador to Iran has said Moscow will consider selling its advanced S-400 anti-aircraft missile system to Tehran, despite U.S. objections and threats. Ambassador Levan Jagarian told the Resalat daily newspaper Sunday that Russia would have "no problem" selling S-400 systems to Iran when the United Nation arms embargo on the country expires on October 18, Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported. "We are not afraid of U.S. threats and we will live up to our commitments," Jagarian said, explaining that Russia will properly consider Iranian arms requests despite continued pressure from the U.S. for nations to further isolate Tehran. President...

Long but fascinating. This is what the left really wants to do with those who don't share its vision of a 'radiant future'. A Zek Remembers StalinÂ’s Camps A new foreword to Julius MargolinÂ’s stunning, recovered memoir of the gulag TIMOTHY SNYDER SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 Wikipedia Political prisoners eating lunch in the Intalag coal mineWIKIPEDIA We speak of memory, but memory is empty without witness. It is too much to expect that all who suffer speak. Yet without witness, memory devolves into propaganda that serves the moment. Julius Margolin asks whether the real Russia is the one that celebrates victory...

If a visitor from Mars observed press coverage of President Donald Trump Middle East peace negotiations, he would have heard an amazing tale about Donald Trump’s incompetence and futility of his efforts. The most experienced negotiator, John Kerry, declared in 2016 "There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world…. No. No, no, and no." In April 2016 Harvard Business Review wrote, “The Donald Trump approach to negotiation would be not only ineffective but also disastrous.” In October 2019 The Atlantic posted an article “Trump’s Middle East Policy Is a Fraud.” Infamous for its foresight, especially when...

CIA Director Gina Haspel is personally blocking the declassification of documents detailing corruption at the highest levels of the intelligence community during the 2016 election, according to The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis. While new information about wrongdoing at the FBI has recently been declassified, including recent revelations about Hillary Clinton campaign’s collusion with Russia, Davis reported on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday that Haspel herself is standing in the way of the declassification of other relevant documents. ... Notably, Haspel was previously the London CIA station chief under former CIA director John Brennan during the 2016 election. “Recall it was London...

Today's top stories 29.09.20 Rival Palestinian factions reach an agreement that will see parliamentary and presidential elections held within six-months -- as part of a collective Palestinian effort to resist Israel's normalization with Arab and Muslim states.Damascus is reportedly seeking to revive direct-negotiations with Jerusalem.French president Emmanuel Macron accuses Hezbollah and its allies for the failure to attain much sought-after political breakthrough for Lebanon.

A Su-25 jet of the Armenian Air Force was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter in the airspace of the Republic of Armenia, Spokesperson for the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan informs. F-16 fighter jets belonging to the Air Force of the Republic of Turkey took off from Ganja Airport of the Republic of Azerbaijan at 10:30 am today and were assisting SU-25 fighters and Turkish-made Bayraktar UAVs in the missile strikes on Vardenis, Mets Masrik, Sotk regions of the Vardenis region of Armenia. During this period, the air defense units were performing fire support tasks for the air...

THE HAGUE (REUTERS) - One of four suspects being tried in absentia for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 has denied any involvement with firing or supplying the missile used in its destruction, a lawyer said in court on Monday (Sept 28). MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile fired from territory held by pro-Russian rebels during fighting in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people aboard were killed. After an international investigation lasting nearly six years, four defendants went on trial in absentia in March, of whom only Oleg Pulatov...

With settlement efforts gaining pace, Egypt has proved capable of mediating between the opposing sides in Libya, though it had thrown its weight behind the eastern forces fighting the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and its Misratan allies, which Turkey has backed with military, intelligence and militia support. Ankara's rigid attitude in the conflict has reduced its clout to influence over only its allies. And the infighting in the GNA presents a further risk to Turkish interests in the upcoming settlement process. In other words, Turkey has failed to preserve the advantage it gained through its scale-tipping military...

Heavy fighting has erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with both civilians and combatants killed. Accusing Azerbaijan of air and artillery attacks, Armenia reported downing helicopters and destroying tanks, and declared martial law. Azerbaijan said it had begun a counter-offensive in response to shelling. The region is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians.

The forum includes Egypt, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Italy. Energy Ministers of seven countries, including Israel’s Yuval Steinitz, attended an event launching the new East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) in a virtual event hosted in Cairo on Tuesday morning. “The blessing of gas brings regional cooperation with Arab and European countries, the first of its kind in history, including contracts to export $30 billion of blue-and-white gas to Jordan and Egypt, and that’s only the beginning,” Steinitz said. The forum includes Egypt, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Italy, whose ambassadors, and Egyptian Energy...

When Soviet scientists developed a new group of nerve agents in the 1970s and ’80s, they called it Novichok, or “newcomer.” The lethal cocktail acts as a cholinesterase inhibitor, blocking an enzyme the nervous system needs to function. The poison disrupts communication between nerves and muscles. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons added Novichock to a list of banned chemical toxins in 2019 after Britain accused Russian agents of using it to poison a former Russian operative and his daughter a year earlier. The Kremlin denied the allegations. Berlin’s Charité hospital said in late August that another Russian...

Two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they will not meet with Amy Coney Barrett -- President Trump’s pick to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Sen. Blumenthal said he refuses 'to treat this process as legitimate.'

<p>All opinion articles are the opinion of the author and not necessarily of American Military News.</p> <p>New reporting has surfaced about a stunning intelligence failure which is a direct result of disastrous intelligence community policies put in place by former CIA director John Brennan during President Obama’s administration.</p>

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has apologized for the death of a South Korean government worker who was shot dead by North Korean troops after crossing a maritime border between the two countries. In a letter sent to South Korea's Blue House Friday morning, North Korea said units responded to a call that an unidentified male was found floating on an object in the sea. The letter claims about 10 rounds were fired at the man after he did not comply with a soldier's demand to identify himself and subsequent warning shots. North Korea says only a pool of...

When Hunter Biden took that $3.5 million in money transfers from Yelena Baturina, Russia's richest woman, the media lapsed into sudden incuriosity, very bizarre, given that it spent four years yelling about President Trump and his supposed "Russian collusion." Here was real Russian collusion and the blue-checks went blue-screen. Miranda Devine at the New York Post has some excellent observations on that here. The corruption watchers in the U.S. government, though, didn't -- bells and alarms went off -- which is why a record of this activity, obtainable by the Senate in its damning interim report, is there at all. According to the New York Post:...