Conspiracy, Death and Jeffrey Epstein

Within minutes of news about his death in a Manhattan jail cell Saturday morning, theories spread with pestilential vigour. Was Jeffrey Epstein murdered? Accepting the premise without qualification, the next question followed: Who did it? MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was not giving anyone time to wonder. “A guy who had information that would have destroyed rich and powerful men’s lives end up dead in his jail cell. How predictably…Russian.”

The Gulf states, the “deal of the century,” and the Iranian threat

In recent months, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the focus of renewed interest and attention, largely stemming from President Donald Trump’s promised “deal of the century” peace plan. Nearly two years after the idea first became public following Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ 2017 meeting with Trump at the UN General Assembly, the full details of the plan remain unclear. The economic elements were released in the run-up to the administration’s “economic workshop” in Bahrain in June, but the political components are still under wraps, and according to media reports, they may not be made public until after the Israeli elections in mid-September.

Turkey Adopts Eurasianism

Few observers back then warned that Erdoğan’s pro-West façade was fake and his deep adherence to political Islam, an enemy of the Western civilization, would one day urge him to seek non-Western alliances.

Turkey’s choice of a Russian-made air defense system that is primarily designated to hit NATO aerial assets is a reflection of its anticipation of an aerial military conflict with a NATO member in the future.

No doubt, the S-400 is also a sign of Erdogan’s disregard for Turkey’s increasingly problematic place in the Western alliance. Erdoğan’s ideologues keep on portraying the U. S. as an “enemy country” while many Turks increasingly buy that line. Seven out of 10 Turks now report feeling threatened by U.S. power

THE DILEMMA OF REPATRIATION

Many European nations are avoiding the responsibility of taking back their citizens who traveled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State; this will only fuel the cycle of radicalization and extremism.

House Homeland Security Committee Takes Aim at Tech Industry’s Failure to Halt Spread of Online Extremist Content

GIFCT Criticism Reiterates Need for Industrywide Standards for Online Extremist Content Removal.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing on social media companies’ efforts to counter online terror content and misinformation. The hearing was called in the wake of March’s New Zealand mosque shootings—in which a terrorist killed 51 people and livestreamed it all on Facebook. A full 24 hours after the livestream, Facebook failed to remove 300,000 reuploads of the attack video. A week later, and then a month later, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) discovered that the video was still widely available. Tech’s failure to prevent reuploads of known terrorist content sheds light on the failings and ineffectiveness of the industry-led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).

UK: A Clash of Educations

While Britons are striving to promote British values, those increasingly appear not to be the values everyone here wants.

The No Outsiders curriculum… teaches acceptance of people different from oneself, which is what brings pupils into contact with mutual respect for Christians, Muslims and Jews, the disabled, gays and everyone who might be considered “other”. “It should make absolutely clear that no group should be left out….”

Turning the Tables on “Global Zero”

  • As it turns out, the modernization of America’s nuclear deterrent would require, at most, only around 3% of the annual defense budget.
  • “International arms control relies on adherence to reciprocal obligations and nations should not be required to subject themselves to unilateral observance of them. Arms control more generally is undermined by violations going unchallenged.” — Forces Network, UK, April 4, 2019.
  • “Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping continue to expand and modernize their nuclear arsenals. Future arms-control agreements must take into account both the Russian and Chinese threats, while ensuring we don’t place one-sided nuclear restrictions on ourselves.” — Senator Tom Cotton; May 13, 2019.
  • “We must… realize that America will not be able to achieve the necessary changes to New START unless it is negotiating from a position of strength. That means Congress must invest in the modernization of our nuclear triad and the additional low-yield capabilities called for in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. These investments are critical to America’s ability to rein in China and Russia.” — Representative Liz Cheney; May 13, 2019.

Mali : Migration irrégulière: 17 000 candidats à la migration morts en 5 ans sur la méditerranée

Les risques et les dangers liés à la migration clandestine ont fait l’objet d’une journée d’information et de sensibilisation, ce mercredi 22 mai 2019, à la maison de la femme, à Darsalam. Elle est organisée par les responsables du projet de sensibilisation et d’informer sur les risques et dangers de la migration irrégulière et la promotion de la libre circulation dans l’espace CEDEAO.