National Security - Page 871

In both the Iran deal and Jerusalem, the U.S. and Israel stand together, unapologetically, against the fearful tide of world opinion.

The Israeli military released a series of images Friday it said showed the extent of damage to Iranian intelligence installations in Syria targeted during a massive aerial bombardment just 24 hours earlier.

TEHRAN –  Iran on Friday condemned Israel’s air raids in Syria, saying they had been launched on “invented pretexts”.

BEIRUT –  United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon said Friday they were keeping a close eye on the southern border with Israel, but the area was “quiet” after strikes on suspected Iranian positions in Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Iran had “crossed a red line” with its missile barrage directed at Israel on Wednesday night, and that the IDF “reacted accordingly” by striking over 50 Iranian targets in Syria in response.

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, two U.S. Secretaries of State, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) pressed Turkish officials this week to release American pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been in prison since October 2017 for allegedly aiding terrorists.

Sam Brownback, the new U.S. ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, joined faith leaders, activists, experts, and laymen at a summit on Capitol Hill on Thursday to urge U.S.-based Christians to stop ignoring the plight of fellow followers of Christ brutally persecuted overseas.

The Pentagon on Thursday released its final report on the ambush in Niger that killed four U.S. troops on October 4, 2017. The report cited “systemic issues” including insufficient training and confusion about mission objectives, specifically the decision by the team to pursue a high-value Islamic State target without obtaining proper command approval.

North Korean state media warned America against “stupid behavior” in a piece Thursday after claiming that the U.S. has boasted of the efficacy of economic sanctions.

Cross-border sting operations carried out by Iraqi and American intelligence officials led to the capture of five high-ranking Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists found hiding in Syria, including a top aide to the group’s chief Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi, authorities in Iraq revealed Thursday.

“Where is the evidence that our electoral integrity has been compromised?” Uí Bhriain continued. “Was it because the polls are tightening? Was it because it looks like this referendum – which is absolutely supported by the media establishment and political establishment – is going to be rejected by the people?”

Stung by criticism of China’s disturbing new “social credit system,” the state-run Global Times responded on Wednesday that such a system is necessary to fight corruption among its huge population.

Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleum of Venezuela (PDSVA) is facing a lawsuit in the United States for failing to pay $25 million owed to Canadian energy contractor SNC-Lavalin.

Reuters cited half a dozen experts on Wednesday who said the three prisoners freed by North Korea could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), experiencing symptoms from “anxiety, depression, irritability, and anger” as a result of their ordeal.

China’s state-run Global Times newspaper claimed in a piece Wednesday that Washington’s decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, “will tarnish the reputation of the superpower” and said America is an “unpredictable superpower” that “looks increasingly likely to do something silly.”

After an eight-year American Apology Tour ground to a disastrous halt, President Trump is piece by piece dismantling Mr. Obama’s diplomatic legacy around the globe.

When I was growing up, organizations that expressed any views at all similar to those expressed by Communist groups were called “Communist fronts.”

North Korean state media quoted dictator Kim Jong-un as stating in talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday that his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump would be an “excellent first step toward promotion of the positive situation development in the Korean peninsula,” the first mention of the meeting in state media.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro announced on Wednesday that Venezuelan mothers will receive a 1.5 million bolívar deposit in their bank accounts, a “bonus” to celebrate Mother’s Day in the socialist Latin American country.

Mass anti-America protests are set to take place following Friday prayer this week in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s personal empire, effectively withdrawing the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal.

Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced legislation on Wednesday to create a National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

First Lady Melania Trump strutted in a Christian Dior suit alongside President Trump to welcome home three Americans who were successfully freed from North Korean prisons.

For the first time since dictator Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump agreed to an unprecedented in-person meeting, North Korea’s state media – the only media available to North Korean citizens – reported on Kim’s ongoing diplomacy with the United States on Thursday.

A top official from the Arab Gulf country of Bahrain is defending what he says is Israel’s “right” to defend itself after Israel launched overnight strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement Thursday morning condemning Iranian missile attacks on Israel and “strongly” supporting “Israel’s right to act in self-defense.”

Israel’s security cabinet was meeting Thursday evening at the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv as tensions with Tehran boiled over into direct confrontation for the first time and an Iranian official warned revenge “will come.”

Ireland’s “Save the Eighth” campaign has accused Google of attempting to silence pro-life voices prior to the upcoming national referendum on abortion by banning advertising on its platforms.

TEL AVIV – Massive strikes in Syria that Israel said destroyed nearly all of Iran’s infrastructure saw at least 23 fighters killed early on Thursday, according to numbers released by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 

President Donald Trump ridiculed Senate Minority leader Church Schumer on Thursday for his hypocrisy on the Iran deal.

President Donald Trump revealed that Singapore would be the site of his planned meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, scheduled for June 12.

Albanian gangsters linked to South American cartels are taking over the illegal drugs scene in Britain.

Several main streets of Jerusalem are bedecked in Israeli and American flags in celebration of the upcoming transfer of the U.S. embassy to the city on Monday — and one major intersection in the center of the city features an explicit pro-Trump message.

Up to half of the estimated $126 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds devoted to nation-building efforts in Afghanistan are “misspent, mismanaged, or disappears entirely,” a top staffer from Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) office testified this week.

TEL AVIV – Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday morning that the IDF had destroyed “almost all of Iran’s military infrastructure sites in Syria” overnight in response to a rocket barrage in Israel’s north, and warned Tehran that attacks on Israeli territory will be met with “the strongest possible force.”

Contents: Killing of two priests escalates farmer-herder conflict in Benue State, Nigeria; News of revenge attacks by farmers criticized as fake news; Israel, Iran and Syria exchange fire in first direct military confrontation