Russia has sent a formal letter to the U.S. warning that shipments of sensitive weapons from the U.S. and NATO were exacerbating tensions in Ukraine and could lead to “unpredictable consequences,” The Washington Post reported.
The State Department declined to confirm any private diplomatic correspondence.
The letter, which was viewed by the Post, added that the U.S. has flouted the rules governing the transfer of weapons to conflict zones. According to the letter, dated Tuesday, Russia accused NATO of impeding early peace negotiations with Ukraine “in order to continue the bloodshed.”
However, a spokesperson added that it can confirm that along with allies and partners, “we are providing Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of security assistance, which our Ukrainian partners are using to extraordinary effect to defend their country against Russia’s unprovoked aggression and horrific acts of violence.”
The news of the diplomatic letter comes as President Biden announced an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine this week, which for the first time included advanced munitions that the war-torn country has requested. The most recent round of U.S. security assistance includes a mixture of arms and other supplies that Washington has already provided Kyiv, as well as new capabilities that had not previously been sent over.
“The Ukrainian military has used the weapons we are providing to devastating effect. As Russia prepares to intensify its attack in the Donbas region, the United States will continue to provide Ukraine with the capabilities to defend itself,” Biden said.
According to the Pentagon, the aid package includes 11 Mi-17 helicopters, 300 Switchblade drones, 200 M113 armored personnel carriers, 18 howitzers, 40,000 artillery rounds, 10 counter-artillery radars, 500 Javelin missiles, unmanned coastal defense vessels, and protective equipment in the event of a chemical or biological weapons attack.
BATTLE OF JERUSALEM: Bennett calls emergency meeting , Hamas and Islamic Jihad threaten escalation, while the United Arab List warn of a coalition crisis
A six-hour clash broke out Friday in the Al-Aqsa compound between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli police forces, leaving at least 152 Palestinians and three Israeli police officers injured in the biggest escalation in Jerusalem since the holy month of Ramadan began.
In a rare move, Israeli officers entered Al-Aqsa Mosque itself after Palestinians threw stones at police forces from the entrance and barricaded themselves inside.
The police say they carried out "hundreds" of arrests before reopening the compound for noon prayers for the second Friday of Ramadan. According to a senior official, the decision to enter the mosque to make the arrests was made in part to enable prayers to occur at noon.
In the end, approximately 60,000 Muslims arrived at the Al-Aqsa compound for the noon prayers without any additional problems.
Israel Police said they entered the compound after masked men, carrying Hamas and Palestinian Authority flags, threw stones and set off fireworks after prayer at 4 A.M.
They noted that forces entered the compound only after the prayer ended and that Palestinians there continued throwing rocks and setting fireworks after police arrived.
The Red Crescent has reported that at least 152 Palestinians have been injured by rubber bullets and tear gas, eight of whom are in intensive care. The police reported that three officers were lightly injured.
Thousands of Palestinian youths stayed at Al-Aqsa Mosque overnight amid calls by religious Jewish groups to enter the compound on Friday to perform a Passover sacrifice, in violation of the so-called status quo agreements on religious practice at the site.
The police believe that many of them hold Israeli citizenship, and arrived from northern Israel. A senior security official said that approximately 40 buses, likely organized by the Islamic movement's northern branch, brought them to the site.
In light of the morning's events, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held an emergency security meeting on the situation in Jerusalem. At the meeting, police chief Kobi Shabtai said that officers at the scene did everything in their power to avoid entering the mosque. "We asked the Waqf guards to take care of the rioters and remove them from the mount, but unfortunately that didn't work," he said.
"Despite that, we allowed the morning prayers to go on, but even after that officers were attacked with rocks, stones and fireworks fired directly at them. This forced us to enter in order to disperse the rioters," he continued.
"We have said time and again that we will do the maximum to allow freedom of worship at the Temple Mount and that reality hasn't changed. The officers there are acting bravely in these complex circumstances, as they deal with violent people who gathered rocks and iron rods in order to hurt the freedom of worship on the mount and at the Western Wall," he added.
Threats from militants, threats from coalition Several groups across Israel and the Palestinian territories swiftly condemned the entry of security forces into the mosque.
In a statement, Hamas said: "We condemn the barbaric aggression of the occupation soldiers against the worshipers in Al-Aqsa.
Our brothers in Jerusalem are not alone in the fight for Al-Aqsa. We call on the masses in the West Bank and within the Green Line to stand by our brother in Jerusalem."
The Islamic Jihad echoed the sentiment, warning that unless Israel "lifted its aggressive hand from Al-Aqsa Mosque, confrontation will be sooner and stronger."
The United Arab List, the Islamic party in the coalition government, condemned the entrance of police into the compound.
"I've passed on the message to the political leadership and the police: The continued damage to Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line for us, also regarding the stability of the coalition," UAL chairman Mansour Abbas said on the radio.
"There are no political considerations when it comes to Al-Aqsa."
ISRAEL TO THE RESCUE: As Europe aims to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel because of the Ukraine invasion, Israel hopes to help fill the gap with gas from its offshore reserves.
EU states remain divided on the time scale, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said the bloc hopes to phase out its dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal by 2027.
Israel could build one or more pipelines, potentially via Greece or Turkey, or increase the quantity of gas piped to Egypt to be liquified and shipped off, say officials and experts.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said after a recent visit to Athens that "the war in Ukraine stands to change the structure of the European and Middle Eastern energy market".
"We are also examining additional economic cooperation, with an emphasis on the energy market."
The Jewish state has worked for years to create gas export routes, with mixed results so far.
Turkey, whose ties with Israel have recently thawed after over a decade of rupture, has expressed new interest in a pipeline, and its energy minister is expected in Israel in the coming weeks.
During the years of diplomatic alienation from Turkey, Israel signed an accord with Greece and Cyprus in 2020 aiming to build the EastMed pipeline through those two countries from Israel to Europe.
Turkey opposed the project, and a senior US diplomat said last week it would be too expensive and take too long to build.
Energy Minister Karine Elharrar also hailed the potential for gas sales to Europe, telling the French Association of Defence Journalists that "we have the ability and we will try to do as much as we can".
REGIONAL ALLIANCES With both Greece and its regional rival Turkey vying to be the conduit for the gas, Israel would have to tread carefully amid the regional alliances it wishes to uphold and strengthen.
Major gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean -- nearly 1,000 billion cubic meters (bcm) -- have in the past decade turned Israel from a natural gas importer into an exporter.
It now sells small quantities from its two major offshore fields, Leviathan and Tamar, to Egypt and Jordan.
Israel's domestic consumption over the next three decades would leave some 600 bcm available for export, said opposition lawmaker Yuval Steinitz, Israel's energy minister until last year.
Israel's Leviathan field, which would be the source for European exports, is operated by an Israeli-American consortium including NewMed Energy and US major Chevron.
NewMed Energy CEO Yossi Abu recently stated his ambition of "bringing Israeli gas to Europe and Asia".
Experts say Israel's current gas fields represent a third of potential reserves, but a means to sell future finds would be needed to encourage further exploration by private companies.
Europe's efforts to diversify gas imports began before the Ukraine war when it "experienced harsh weather and gas prices rose significantly," said Ganor, the energy ministry official.
Steinitz said a pipeline to Turkey would cost $1.5 billion and take two to three years to build.
Israel "could definitely be a serious factor in creating more independence and a wealth of energy sources for Europe," he said.
He said Israel could even export via Greece, Turkey and Egypt at the same time because "we have enough gas to export through the three channels".
MICRO CHIPPING: New microchip implants that let you pay with your hand
The use of physical cash has been declining for years, but this trend only accelerated during the pandemic when contactless became the name of the game.
However, hundreds of people are deciding to go much further than simply foregoing chip and pin—by getting a microchip implanted into their skin which can be used instead of a credit card.
British-Polish company Walletmor became the first company to offer NFC (near-field communication) payment chips last year, and claims to have already sold more than 500 of them to willing customers.
The chips can be used anywhere that accepts contactless payments and are considered medically safe.
Walletmor CEO Wojtek Paprota told the BBC: "The implant can be used to pay for a drink on the beach in Rio, a coffee in New York, a haircut in Paris - or at your local grocery store."
He added: "Chip implants contain the same kind of technology that people use on a daily basis. From key fobs to unlock doors, public transit cards like the London Oyster card, or bank cards with contactless payment function."
Those who have had a chip implanted say they get 'priceless' reactions from cashiers. A self-proclaimed biohacker from the Netherlands, Patrick Paumen said that "the procedure hurts as much as when someone pinches your skin."
Currently, the chips only store information locally, don't require a power source, and don't keep much private data on them.
However, some are concerned that they could be used in future as a surveillance tool that tracks people
Professor Nada Kakabadse told the BBC: "There is a dark side to the technology that has a potential for abuse. To those with no love of individual freedom, it opens up seductive new vistas for control, manipulation and oppression.
Israel was given to the Jews Forever and GOD ALMIGHTY first made that Promise to Abramham as we see in the Holy Bible.
Genesis 13:14-17 And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee
The Promise was then Confirmed to His son Isaac.
Genesis 26:3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father
The Promise was then Confirmed to Isaac's Son, Jacob, Abramham's Grandson.
Genesis 28:10-13 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed
The Promised land was Described in terms of territory, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates river.
Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates
GOD ALMIGHTY then reaffirmed the Promise when HE Changed Jacob's Name to ISRAEL.
Gen 35:9-12 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land
.
As we can Plainly and Clearly see, GOD ALMIGHTY the Owner and Creator of the Heavens, the Earth and Everything in it, Gave ISREAL to the JEWS.
It does not Matter what the UN says, It does not Matter what the rest of the World says, It does not Matter what the Media says, It does not Matter what anyone says, The Land of Israel and Everything in it belongs to the JEWS.
Anyone supporting or saying otherwise is Fighting HIS Maker. Anyone supporting or saying otherwise is Fighting GOD ALMIGHTY. And only a man/ woman without Wisdom will Fight his/ her Maker. Fighting GOD or going against is an act of Suicide. Those that Have Ears to Hear, let them Hear.
We are Practically living in the Bible as all the Signs JESUS Christ told us will precede His Coming are playing out live before us.
The Signs of JESUS soon return are so Strong and the Evidence is so clear, that any person willing to accept the truth can see that the end of the world, as we know it is near.
Anyday, anymoment now, JESUS Christ is coming. Are you ready? On that day, the news headline allover the world will Ready something like this.
GAS SUPPLY: “The European energy market is facing a substantial shortage following the Russia crisis,” Elharrar said. “Israel sees an opportunity and will take full advantage of it.”
Israel is preparing to step into the gap in Europe’s energy market left by sanctions on Russian natural gas as soon as this summer, Energy Minister Karin Elharrar said on Thursday.
“The European energy market is facing a substantial shortage following the Russia crisis,” Elharrar said. “Israel sees an opportunity, and will take full advantage of it.”
Russia provides Europe with about 40% of its natural gas consumption per year, more than 150 billion cubic meters (BCM).
Israel cannot totally take Russia’s place, but eastern Mediterranean states can provide about 20 BCM annually, most of which would come from Israel.
The US promised Europe 15-20 BCM of liquefied natural gas (LNG) following the Russia sanctions, and Qatar is expected to export 20-30 BCM to Europe.
“We’re not a replacement for Russian gas, but we have a good amount that we can export,” a senior diplomatic source said this week, commenting that the energy issue comes up as “a huge issue for everyone” in most conversations between top Israeli officials and foreign counterparts.
“The question is what is the quickest and most cost-efficient method, and what is most beneficial to all those involved,” said the source.
Elharrar and the EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson established a working group on energy, which Egypt will be joining as well.
The working plan, based on an agreement between Elharrar and her Egyptian counterpart that has yet to be finalized, is for Israeli natural gas to go through Egypt’s plant for liquefaction and then exported to Europe.
An Egyptian diplomatic source confirmed that there are “ongoing talks in light of requests from the European side to see how we can work together in the field of gas to be able to export more to the EU. It is an ongoing discussion that has not been finalized for Israel to export more to Egypt and then Egypt export more to the EU.”
Natural gas cooperation came up in Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry last week, at the Negev Summit.
The increased exports in cooperation with Egypt will only begin once production begins in the Karish-Tanin field, which Elharrar said will likely be in September.
CONTROVERSY : Transgender women should not compete in female events,' Boris Johnson triggers another controversy
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it seems “sensible” that transgender women should not be able to compete in female sporting categories.
Johnson made the comments during a visit to a hospital in Welwyn Garden City on Wednesday in the wake of transgender cyclist Emily Bridges being prevented from riding at the National Omnium Championships in Derby last weekend.
Bridges, who began hormone therapy last year, had been due to race for the first time in the female category after British Cycling gave the 21-year-old the green light to enter, but the International Cycling Union ruled her ineligible.
“I don’t think that biological males should be competing in female sporting events. And maybe that’s a controversial thing… but it just seems to me to be sensible,” the Prime Minister said.
“That doesn’t mean that I’m not immensely sympathetic to people who want to change gender, to transition. It’s vital that we give people the maximum possible love and support in making those decisions.
“That doesn’t mean that I’m not immensely sympathetic to people who want to change gender, to transition. It’s vital that we give people the maximum possible love and support in making those decisions.
Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ rights charity, issued a fresh statement following Wednesday’s comments by the Prime Minister.
A spokesperson said: “Trans people deserve the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy the benefits of sport and blanket exclusions on trans people participating are fundamentally unfair.
X-FILES: THE PENTAGON has released 1,574 pages of real-life X-Files related to its secretive UFO programme after a four-year battle.
The Sun Online first requested a copy of all "files, reports or video files" related to the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP) on December 18, 2017.
We filed an a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) just days after the existence of the shadowy programme had been made public.
Finally after more than four years, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released more than 1,500 documents.
It includes government commissioned scientific reports and letters to the Pentagon regarding the UFO programme.
The haul includes reports into research on the biological effects of UFO sightings on humans, sets out categorisations for paranormal experiences, and studies into sci-fi-style tech.
The DIA, the Department of Defense's spy arm, said "some portions" of the documents "must be withheld in part" due to privacy and confidentiality concerns.
But the agency added the "DIA has not withheld any reasonably segregable non-exempt portions of the records".
The bombshell Freedom of Information haul includes reports on the DIA's research into the biological effects of UFO sightings on humans.
And this includes burns, heart problems, sleep disturbances - and even bizarre occurrences such as "apparent abduction" and "unaccounted for pregnancy".
The report noted that often these injuries are related to electromagnetic radiation - and links them to "energy related propulsion systems".
And the report - prepared for the DIA - warns that such objects may be a "threat to United States interests".
Humans have been found to have been injured from "exposures to anomalous vehicles, especially airborne and when in close proximity", it reads.
The report added said it had 42 cases from medical files and 300 similar "unpublished" cases where humans had been injured after "anomalous" encounters.
AATIP was a secretive Pentagon programme that ran between 2007 and 2012 to study UFOs.
It was outed by former intelligence official turned whistleblower Luis Elizondo, who headed up the programme, back in 2017.
Bombshell videos of unexplained UFO sightings by US military personnel - investigated by AATIP - were also first published at the time.
The revelations on the programme marked a step change in the way the US talks about UFOs - now more commonly known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).
And the phenomena has stepped from the fringe into a serious national security concern discussed by lawmakers, defence officials and even former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
One fascinating document included in an Acquisition Threat Support report, sets out how to categorise "anomalous behaviour" - with encounters with "ghosts, yetis, spirits, elves and other mythical/ legendary entities" classed as "AN3".
Seeing a UFO with aliens on board would be "CE3".
Poltergeists, crop circles, spontaneous human combustion, alien abductions and other paranormal events are also categorised.
Studies into advanced technologies such as invisibility cloaks and mind controlled robots are also included in the document cahce.
Other documents obtained include studies into communicating with alien civilisations and plans for deep space exploration and colonization.
The slew of newly released documents contains letters from Senator Harry Reid - who asks for the project to be classed as top secret - and documents about contractors.
WORLD GOVERNMENT SUMMIT: On The Opening Day Of The 2022 World Government Summit In Dubai, The First Item On The Agenda Was About Preparing To Receive The New World Order
The World Government Summit Organization is a global, neutral, non-profit organization dedicated to shaping the future of governments.
The Summit, in its various activities, explores the agenda of the next generation of governments, focusing on harnessing innovation and technology to solve universal challenges facing humanity.
The Summit will bring thought leaders, global experts and decision makers from around the globe to discuss how best to implement the New World Order after the Great Reset.
Since its inception in 2013, the Summit has championed the mission of shaping future governments and creating a better future for humanity. The past 7 editions of the Summit have successfully established a new model to collaborate on an international playing field to inspire and enable the next generation of governments.
The World Government Summit is a global knowledge exchange platform for governments that was established in 2013 under the dynamic leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai and is poised to scale newer heights of excellence and inclusivity.
MIDDLE EAST WAR: Hamas and other extremist groups have encouraged Palestinian tensions with Israel in Jerusalem during Ramadan.
Israel is concerned about an incident in Jerusalem, and it could be planning a “major operation in a sensitive area near al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem,” Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported.
Iran termed this an “unexpected event.” This is language coming from senior Iranian media sources close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC backs Hamas.
Hamas and other extremist groups have encouraged Palestinian tensions with Israel in Jerusalem during Ramadan. There were clashes and Palestinian media incitement against Israel’s foreign minister and other leaders on Sunday night.
The familiar cycle of accusing Israelis of “storming” the Old City of Jerusalem is imminent. Hamas incitement claiming it has a “right” to fire rockets will soon begin. The goal is another war with Israel like last year, a conflict orchestrated by Iran to test new rockets and drones. This could be the messaging behind the Tasnim article.
Iran is outraged by the recent Negev Summit of Arab foreign ministers in Israel, and it needs to increase its profile in the region.
Tehran wants to use Palestinian suffering to increase these profits. The profits for Iran are not necessarily financial, but rather using proxies against Israel.
Iranian media claim Israel is concerned that a new “operation” in Jerusalem could “bring a new wave of dangerous conflicts and will lead the Hamas movement and the [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad to a very bloody and serious reaction.”
Israeli media have indeed reported that Israel could be ready for another conflict of the sort that took place last year. The driver behind these conflicts is Hamas and PIJ, as well as Iran.
Iran says Israel will launch an “operation [that] may target Palestinian Muslim worshipers who go to al-Aqsa Mosque to offer prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.”
Iranian media say Qatar and Jordan are trying to mediate in an effort to reduce the chance of violence. Yet Iran’s leader reportedly spoke to his Qatar counterpart this week.
It is unclear if that is linked to the claim that Qatar might reduce tensions. Since Iran wants tensions, it’s unclear what the discussion would be about.
“According to the same sources, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with Jordanian King Abdullah II last night and praised his efforts to calm the situation in the occupied territories,” an Iranian media outlet reported.
Obviously, Tehran is not happy to see peacemakers trying to reduce the tensions.
MIDDLE EAST: sraeli security forces killed three Islamic Jihad militants
Israeli security forces killed three Islamic Jihad militants when they came under fire Saturday during a raid in the West Bank, police said, the latest deaths in a surge of violence.
The bloodshed comes amid heightened tensions ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, that has seen violence spiral in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Last year during Ramadan, clashes that flared between Israeli forces and Palestinians visiting Al-Aqsa mosque in annexed east Jerusalem led to 11 days of devastating conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Islamist rulers Hamas.
On Saturday, Israeli police said security forces killed three members of the Islamic Jihad militant group who had opened fire during an operation to arrest them near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, the police said.
The Israeli forces had intercepted "a terrorist cell on its way to an attack, and stopped the car in which they were travelling between Jenin and Tulkarem", the police said.
Later on Saturday, the Israeli army announced that a "final terrorist connected to the terrorist cell that was thwarted overnight has been apprehended".
"It was estimated that the final wanted suspect was going to attempt to carry out an additional terror attack" before being caught, it added.
The Islamic Jihad, which is based in Gaza, confirmed the "death of our three hero fighters" from the West Bank, identifying them as Saeb Abahra, Khalil Tawalbeh and Seif Abu Labdeh.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said they were slain in an "extrajudicial killing" and "horrible crime".
Israel's leaders "must stop committing crimes and violations against our Palestinian people, respond to their legitimate rights to freedom and independence, end the occupation and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital", he said, quoted by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned in a tweet on Saturday that the security forces would "act forcefully against any attempted attack" on citizens of the Jewish state.
Saturday's clash is the latest in a spate of bloody violence in Israel and the West Bank since March 22.
- IS-linked attacks
On Friday, Israeli forces shot dead a 29-year-old Palestinian during confrontations in the West Bank city of Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Wafa named him as Ahmad al-Atrash, who it said was taking part in a protest against Israeli settlements and had previously served six years in an Israeli prison.
The Israeli army said that during a "riot" in Hebron "a suspect hurled a Molotov cocktail" at soldiers who "responded with live fire".
Hebron, the biggest city in the West Bank, is home to about 1,000 Jewish people living under heavy Israeli military protection, among more than 200,000 Palestinians.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 70 people were wounded in Friday's clashes with the Israeli army in the Nablus area of the northern West Bank.
On Thursday, Israeli security forces raided Jenin after three fatal attacks rocked the Jewish state, leading to clashes in which two Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Elsewhere in the West Bank on the same day, a Palestinian man who stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli civilian with a screwdriver on a bus was shot dead south of the city of Bethlehem.
It followed an attack on Tuesday night in Bnei Brak, an Orthodox Jewish city near Tel Aviv where a Palestinian with an assault rifle killed two Israeli civilians, two Ukrainian nationals and an Arab-Israeli policeman.
A total of 11 people have been killed in attacks in Israel since March 22, including some carried out by assailants linked to or inspired by the Islamic State group.
Over the same period, eight Palestinians have been killed, according to an AFP tally, including two assailants in anti-Israeli attacks and six people the Israelis said had carried out attacks or were about to do so.
The West Bank, which has been occupied by Israeli forces since the 1967 Six-Day war, is home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers, living in communities regarded as illegal under international law.
WEST BANK CLASHES:Palestinian throwing firebomb shot and killed by Israeli troops in Hebron clashes
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron during clashes that broke out after Friday prayers, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Tensions have soared in recent days after Palestinian assailants killed 11 Israelis in separate attacks across the country.
Israeli forces have stepped up security and launched arrest raids in the West Bank, killing two Palestinians during a gunbattle on Thursday. Another Palestinian was killed on Thursday, after stabbing and wounding an Israeli on a bus in the West Bank.
The Health Ministry said Ahmed al-Atrash, 29, was killed in Hebron on Friday.
The Israeli military said its forces shot a Palestinian who threw a firebomb at them.
Several hundred Jewish settlers live under heavy military protection in the heart of Hebron, a city of more than 200,000 Palestinians and home to a major holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims.
The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said dozens of Palestinians were wounded in weekly demonstrations elsewhere in the West Bank, where protesters often throw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops, who fire tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and sometimes live rounds.
At the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, authorities said more than 30,000 people attended Friday prayers on the eve of Ramadan, which begins this weekend. There were no reports of protests or violence.
The hilltop on which the mosque is located is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount, and it has been a frequent flashpoint in the century-old conflict.
Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders have held a flurry of talks in recent weeks, and Israel has made a series of goodwill gestures, all aimed at calming tensions ahead of Ramadan.
They hope to avoid a repeat of last year, when protests and clashes in Jerusalem during Ramadan ignited an 11-day Gaza war and Jewish-Arab violence in Israel's mixed cities.
Gender X: U.S. passports will include option for "X" gender marker starting April 11, 2022, State Department says
Americans applying for a U.S. passport will be able to identify with the gender designation "X" beginning on April 11, the State Department announced Thursday, in recognition of Trans Visibility Day. The move intends to make federal documents more inclusive for transgender, intersex, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people.
"We're setting a precedent as the first US federal government agency to offer the 'X' gender marker on an identity document," Douglass Benning, principal deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs at the State Department, told reporters.
Applicants will be permitted to select gender "X" on their passport application form, even if it doesn't match the gender on their birth certificate or other documents.
While the gender "X" marker will be available for routine services next month, the State Department plans to roll out the option for other documents — including passport cards, expedited and consular reports of birth abroad — beginning in late 2023.
"The X means unspecified or another gender identity," said Jessica Stern, U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons.
Stern said that while the policy change recognizes the "true identity" of the passport holder, it will not create new definitions nor rights.
"The provision of an 'X' gender marker option is important because human beings do not always fit within a male or female category around the world, the lived realities of transgender intersex, non-binary and gender-nonconforming persons reflects that there is a wider spectrum of humanity than is represented by a binary sex designation on passports," Stern said.
Terror attack in Israel: Shooting near Tel Aviv leaves 5 dead
A gunman killed at least five people in an attack in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, on Tuesday, paramedics said.
A video broadcast on Israeli TV showed a man in black with an assault rifle walking around the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town.
Witnesses said he shot at balconies, people on the street and a car. Ambulance spokesperson Zaki Heller said that the "terrorist was liquidated." It was not immediately clear who shot him.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited police who said the assailant was a 26-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank. They added that he had been arrested in 2013 and served a six-month sentence.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett convened an emergency meeting with top security officials on Tuesday.
The attack comes after the so-called Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the killing of two people in the Israeli city of Hadera on Sunday. Just last week a man killed four people in a stabbing spree in the Negev desert.
The Times of Israel reported that the total of 11 victims killed in the recent attacks constitute the the highest number of people killed in such a period within the country since the suicide bombing of a bus in 2006 killed 11 people.
Earlier on Tuesday, police carried out raids on at least 12 Arab-Israeli homes. The assailants in the previous two attacks were both Arab Israeli citizens. Before the raids, Bennett called the rise in violence a "new situation."
Who is behind the attacks?
It was not yet clear who was responsible for Tuesday's shooting, but IS claimed responsibility for the two previous incidents. The death toll over the past few days marks a recent high point for terrorist attacks.
Israeli officials said the Islamic holy month of Ramadan was set to begin on Saturday evening.
In 2021, tensions following the attempted eviction of a Palestinian family from a Jerusalem neighborhood sparked clashes with police, which eventually spilled over into an 11-day war that left 243 Palestinians dead and 12 people in Israel.
Sunday's attack also coincided with a regional summit held in Israel, which saw representatives from several Arab states that recently normalized relations with the country come together.
LORD OF THE WORLD: Blind psychic Baba Vanga - who is known as the 'Nostradamus of the Balkans' and correctly predicted 9/11 - claims Russian president Vladimir Putin will become 'Lord of the World'
A blind psychic who correctly predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as the 9/11 attacks once claimed that president Vladimir Putin is to become 'Lord of the World'.
Known as the Nostradamus of the Balkans, Baba Vanga, who died 25 years ago in 1996 aged 84, predicted in a 1979 interview that Russia was to dominate the world.
She also made a frightening prediction about World War Three and the potential use of nuclear weapons.
During the interview with writer Valentin Sidorov, she said Putin's 'glory' will remain 'untouched'.
'Too much is brought in a victim. Nobody can stop Russia,' BirminghamLive reported.
'All will thaw, as if ice, only one remain untouched - Vladimir's glory, glory of Russia.
'All will be removed by her from the way and not only will be kept, but also becomes the lord of the world.'
Vanga is believed to have a knack for predicting major events across the globe, namely the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.
It is claimed that during her 50-year career, she also predicted the Coronavirus pandemic, Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 and the death of Princess Diana in 1997.
The psychic reportedly predicted the Covid outbreak 'years ago' when she warned: 'The corona will be all over us.'
She gained notoriety after supposedly predicting the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000.
The submarine sank 12 months after Vanga claimed the Kursk was to be 'covered with water' and the 'whole world will weep over it'
DOOMSDAY: Doomsday' Boeing 747 dubbed 'Flying Pentagon' that was designed in 70s for US military leaders in case of nuclear war is deployed to England during President Joe Biden's NATO summit in Brussels
The US Air Force has sent it's 'Doomsday' plane to Europe as part of a fleet of jets to support President Joe Biden's four-day mission to bolster unity against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The E4-B Nightwatch is designed to be a command and control centre in the event of nuclear war.
The US keeps at least one of the fleet of four on permanent standby for immediate launch in the event of a nuclear conflict.
Earlier this week, a senior Kremlin official warned that Moscow reserved the right to use nuclear weapons if there was an 'existential threat' against the country.
One of the jets - which are based on a Boeing 747 and first entered service in the 1980s - flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk yesterday, having refuelled midair while crossing the Atlantic.
The aircraft are designed to survive the electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear detonation and maintain contact with US military units across the globe to respond to a hostile attack.
The jets, which have been upgraded since their first deployment are able to pass orders from the president to US nuclear submarines and the country's ICBM silos.
As a result, they have been described as the 'Flying Pentagon'.
The doomsday jets look similar to the presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One - although the E4-B - contains highly specialised monitoring and communications equipment.
Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN that nuclear weapons could be used if there was 'an existential threat for our country'.
Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin later warned: 'Russia is capable of anything.
'They don't respect any rules. They don't respect any international laws that they are actually committed to.'
NATO partners have agreed to supply Ukraine with equipment to protect against possible chemical attack.
General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels: 'This could include detection equipment, protection and medical support, as well as training for decontamination and crisis management.'
Biden is to visit Poland on Friday, where the energy and refugee issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda.
Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Earlier today, NATO promised Kyiv new military support and assigned more troops to the alliance's eastern flank while London and Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Moscow during a trio of summits on Thursday aimed at showing Western unity against Russia's war in Ukraine.
NATO leaders meeting in Brussels agreed to help Ukraine protect itself against any chemical, biological or nuclear attacks, and a U.S. official said Washington and allies were also working to provide Kyiv with anti-ship missiles.
MYSTERIOUS: Mysterious high-frequency waves swirling on the sun are moving at speeds that 'defy explanation
A team from New York University's Abu Dhabi Center for Space Science analyzed 25 years of space and ground-based observations of energy waves from our host star
High-frequency waves swirling on the sun have left scientists confused, as the unexpected bursts of energy are moving at speeds that defy explanation.
They discovered a new set of waves moving in the opposite direction of the sun's rotation, inexplicably travelling faster than was theoretically possible.
These waves appear as a pattern of vortices, in a swirling motion, on the surface of the sun and move at three times the speed of other types of waves on the star.
Known as high-frequency retrograde (HFR) waves, they provide unprecedented insight into the inner workings of a star, and could one day lead to new types of physics, as follow up studies try to explain how they can be so fast.
The interior of the sun, like other stars of its type, cannot be imaged by conventional astronomy, whether it be optical, x-ray or infrared techniques.
This means scientists have to rely on interpreting the surface signatures of a variety of waves of light, in order to understand what is happening deep inside.
These new High-Frequency Retrograde waves, named because of their counter-direction, may yet be an important puzzle piece in our understanding of stars.
Complex interactions between other well known waves and magnetism, gravity or convection could drive the HFR waves at the unexpected speed, the team predict.
'If the HFR waves could be attributed to any of these three processes, then the finding would have answered some open questions we still have about the sun,' said research associate and study author, Chris Hanson from NYU.
'However, these new waves don't appear to be a result of these processes, and that's exciting because it leads to a whole new set of questions.'
By studying the sun's interior dynamics - through the use of waves - scientists can better appreciate its potential impact on the Earth and other planets.
'The very existence of HFR modes and their origin is a true mystery and may allude to exciting physics at play,' said Shravan Hanasoge, a co-author of the paper. 'It has the potential to shed insight on the otherwise unobservable interior of the sun.'
It comes under a relatively niche area of astronomy, known as helioseismology, which relies on the study of acoustic waves seen in the sun.
This is similar to the study of waves on Earth, that can predict Earthquakes.
With the sun, studying these waves has been used to understand more about its interior rotation and structure - which would be impossible using direct observation techniques.
'We were able to detect equatorially antisymmetric vorticity waves, propagating retrograde at three times the phase speeds of Rossby–Haurwitz waves of the same wavenumber,' the authors wrote.
This is referring to a new type of wave that swirls in the opposite direction to the rotation of the sun, and moving three times faster than other wave types.
This can't be explained by standard hydrodynamic mechanisms, the team explained, suggesting new physics might be at play in the rarified, intense interior of stars like our sun.
UN FOOD CHIEF: World Food Programme flags famine risk in Africa and the Middle East as Ukraine war hits supplies.
The head of the world’s biggest food aid agency has a stark warning for European leaders: Pay more now to stave off global hunger or suffer a migration crisis later.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent a shockwave through international food markets, worsening the already dire problem of global hunger by disrupting supply and inflating prices.
That risks tipping the poorest, most famine-ravaged regions of the planet into political chaos and creating an unprecedented migration crisis, according to David Beasley, the World Food Programme’s executive director.
In an interview with POLITICO, Beasley warned that Europe must donate more funding urgently or it will bear the brunt of the fallout.
“We’re billions short,” he said. “Failure to provide this year a few extra billion dollars means you’re going to have famine, destabilization and mass migration.”
Beasley’s intervention will sharpen minds as EU governments draw up plans to address the food crisis resulting from the war, with a proposal expected as early as Wednesday.
Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s biggest producers and exporters of grain. The disruption caused by the war has a direct impact on countries that rely on these supplies in the Middle East and Africa.
Half of Africa’s wheat imports come from Ukraine and Russia, which is also a major fertilizer exporter. As for Ukraine, its exports have ground to a halt and its capacity to keep growing food this year is hanging by a thread. The crunch point will come in the fall, Beasley said, when the full impact of the war’s disruption is likely to be felt.
“If you think we’ve got hell on earth now, you just get ready,” Beasley warned. “If we neglect northern Africa, northern Africa’s coming to Europe. If we neglect the Middle East, the middle East is coming to Europe.”
The economic conditions facing these parts of the world are now worse than they were in the run-up to the Arab Spring, he said. And it’s not just the populations of Middle Eastern and North African countries who will feel the squeeze.
The WFP is already feeding millions of people further south in Sahel countries like Niger and Burkina Faso, where problems will worsen if global food prices stay sky high. “I’ve been warning our developed nations for several years now that the Sahel is going to collapse if we’re not careful,” he said.
Beasley is on an urgent fundraising mission to Brussels, where he held talks with two EU commissioners on Tuesday. If the food crisis spins out of control and the world faces critical supply shortages, the rich West will not be spared from political unrest.
“What do you think is going to happen in Paris and Chicago and Brussels when there’s not enough food?” he said, speaking in the sumptuous surroundings of Belgium’s Royal Fine Arts Museum, where the EU held a major humanitarian conference this week. “It’s easy to sit on your high horse in your ivory tower when you’re not the one starving.”
PEACE AND SECURITY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested Jerusalem could host peace talks between him and Vladimir Putin
In his latest attempt to push for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested Jerusalem could host peace talks between him and Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky thanked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for efforts to broker talks in a video released on Telegram late Sunday.
“We are grateful... for his every effort. So sooner or later we could start the conversation with Russia. Perhaps in Jerusalem,” said Zelensky.
“This is the right place for finding peace. If this is possible.”
Bennett has held regular phone calls with Zelensky and Putin, and also had a three-hour meeting with Putin at the Kremlin on March 5.
He has walked a careful diplomatic line since Russia launched its military operation on February 24.
Stressing Israel’s strong ties to both Moscow and Kyiv, he has sought to preserve delicate security cooperation with Russia, which has troops in Syria, across Israel’s northern border.
“Of course, Israel has its own interests and defence strategy for their own citizens. We understand all of this,” Zelensky said.
Earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian president, who is Jewish, had spoken to Israeli lawmakers via videolink, the latest in a virtual international tour of foreign legislatures that has included the United States’ Congress, Britain’s House of Commons and Germany’s Bundestag.
“Russian propagandists have a tough task today,” he said in his Telegram video.
“Because for the first time in history, a president of a foreign nation, spoke on video recording in the Knesset and to the whole nation of Israel... the president of Ukraine, who is accused of Nazism in Russia.”
Putin has called Ukraine’s leaders “neo-Nazis” and said the “denazification” of Ukraine is one of the reasons for launching the military operation.
In his address to the Knesset, Zelensky urged Israel to abandon its effort to maintain neutrality.
“We can mediate between states but not between good and evil,” he said.
He at several points compared Russian aggression to the Holocaust, drawing immediate criticism from some officials in Israel.
Israel has provided humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, but so far ruled out sending military hardware to the embattled country.
The Jewish state has also not joined Western sanctions against Russia.
CONFUSION: A Biden administration appointee who joined the elite ranks of USA Today’s “Women of the Year” is not a woman.
A Biden administration appointee who joined the elite ranks of USA Today’s “Women of the Year” is not a woman.
The newspaper named Admiral. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary of health in the Department of Health and Human Services, as one of the women it honored, even though Levine is male.
Levine, who identifies as a woman, became the first openly transgender official to be confirmed by the Senate last year.
Susan Rice, President Joe Biden’s hand-picked director of his Domestic Policy Council, gushed over the award.
“Congratulations to the trailblazing @HHS_ASH Admiral Rachel Levine on being named one of @USATODAY’s Women of the Year. Your leadership during this pandemic has been vital,” she tweeted.
Levine is allowed to call himself “admiral” because the job he holds puts him in command of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. The Biden administration has claimed that his appointment meant he is the first four-star admiral of the corps, according to CBS.
Some have said all the celebration of Levine is a bit much.
YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS
USA Today includes Admiral Rachel Levine, who is transgender, among “Women of the Year” honorees. She’s a man, man. This does incredible disservice to the true “Women” that have contributed to making the World a better place! https
— Mercury Chronicle �� (@MercuryReports)
During the pandemic, Rachel Levine evacuated her own mother from a nursing home all while sending thousands of PA seniors to their deaths by forcing them to languish there.
FOOD CRISIS: Fears from Russia- Ukraine war Drives up cost of Wheat Globally
As the Russian army tightens its grip in Ukraine, fears grow of an unintended consequence of the war: a food-security crisis.
Some of the biggest – and hungriest – nations are dependent on shipments of grain from countries like Ukraine and Russia, which together account for a quarter of the world’s entire wheat exports.
The war has also sent fuel prices soaring, which will have an effect on the cost of producing and transporting food. Fertilizer, a critical component of agriculture, has also become more expensive.
One particularly vulnerable country is Egypt. A nation of over 100 million people, it spends $4 billion a year importing food to feed its population, and 70 per cent of its wheat demand comes from Ukraine and Russia.
The fact that exports from Ukraine are cut off entirely presents a terrifying dilemma for Egypt or Turkey, which also depends heavily on wheat from the region.
“This shortage really matters,” says Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine. “There will be hunger in certain countries,” he told Global News.
As the world continues to endure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a war in Europe is only adding to a sense of economic insecurity.
Stock markets have been on a rollercoaster ride in recent weeks, as investors grapple with the potential long-term economic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the past, disruptions to supplies have led to political instability in countries that are food insecure at the best of times, and experts fear that the same could happen as supplies from Ukraine and Russia are cut off.
The immediate impacts will be felt in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, says Mylovanov, who returned to Kyiv from the United States just days before Russia’s invasion, out of a sense of duty to his country.
Large countries like Egypt, he says, will start looking to other suppliers, and that will drive prices up for everyone.
“If you have five people to feed, and you have six pieces of bread, the price of bread is zero, because you have extra. But if you have four pieces, then the price of bread is everything they’ve got.”
“This shows that what happens in one part of the world has an impact on other parts of the world.”
ALIEN DRONE SWARM: I got scared and ran inside": Texas locals were variously freaked out, annoyed and impressed by a 600-foot-wide drone swarm marketing stunt.
This is what an alien invasion from a marketing department looks like.
An eerie swarm of purple lights amassed in the skies over downtown Austin, Texas, Sunday evening.
Four hundred drones were suspended over the city during the South by Southwest festival to form a giant, hovering … QR code?
The dystopic-yet-impressive stunt came courtesy of Paramount+ to promote its upcoming sci-fi series Halo, based on the popular Xbox game about a warrior fighting off an alien invasion.
The display was 300 feet tall (roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty) and 600 feet wide (almost two football fields). And, yes, the QR code was scannable, linking to a trailer for the series.
Locals on the Austin had plenty of thoughts. “This is obviously a sign of the apocalypse,” wrote one. “The day I look up to the night sky and see an ad is the day you should just shoot me right there,” penned another. “I saw it and got scared and ran inside,” wrote another.
And still others pointed out that such a stunt could be used in the future for more nefarious purposes by tricking people into opening malware on their phones.
TEMPLE MOUNT: Mahmoud al-Habbash, the PA’s top Islamic judge and presidential adviser on religious affairs, accused Israel of seeking to ignite a religious war “that would burn the whole world.”
Palestinian Authority officials on Sunday warned against attempts by Jews to “storm” al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Temple Mount) during Jewish holidays, saying this would trigger a “religious war.”
They called on Palestinians to converge on the site in the coming days to foil the alleged attempts.
Palestinians regularly condemn tours by Jews of the Temple Mount compound as “incursions” although the visitors do not enter the mosque itself.
The warning came less than a month before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, during which hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshipers attend prayers at al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in the Old City of Jerusalem.
During last year’s Ramadan, clashes erupted between Palestinians and the Israeli police at the compound and in other parts of the Old City.
Mahmoud al-Habbash, the PA’s top Islamic judge and presidential adviser on religious affairs, accused Israel of seeking to ignite a religious war “that would burn the whole world.”
He claimed that “settler gangs exploit Jewish holidays to storm the blessed Aqsa Mosque to impose a fait accompli there as part of the Judaization schemes targeting Jerusalem and the Islamic holy sites.”
Habbash urged Palestinians who are able to reach al-Aqsa Mosque “to intensify their presence there in the coming days to thwart the plans of the settler terrorist groups and defend the mosque.”
The Palestinian leadership, he said, is closely following the events at the Mosque compound “and the attempts of the occupying state to increase tension in Jerusalem.”
Habbash claimed that the “incursions” are part of an Israeli scheme to divide the Temple Mount in time and space between Muslims and Jews.
He added that the Palestinians are determined to thwart the purported “incursions.” “Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to Muslims alone,” he said. “Non-Muslims have no right to it, as stated in the Koran and confirmed by international laws and UNESCO resolutions.”
Habbash called on all Muslims to emphasize the Islamic identity of the mosque “and send a clear message to the world that harming Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque would be regarded as an assault on the faith of more than one and a half billion Muslims.”
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammed Hussein called on Palestinians to arrive at the mosque “to confront the calls launched by extremist settler groups to storm it during the Jewish holiday of Purim” later this week.
The mufti warned that settlers will try to bring whistles and costumes into the mosque during the holiday, “in addition to singing, dancing and celebrating at its gates.”
“Harming the sanctity of al-Aqsa Mosque is a heinous crime, which is part of efforts to impose a new fait accompli there,” Hussein argued.
HEALTH CRISIS:: WHO warn new outbreak could become ‘horseman of the apocalypse’
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Doctor Mike Ryan, Head of WHO Emergencies Programme, warned an outbreak could spell disaster for those involved and those fleeing the conflict. He said: “The conditions we see in Ukraine are the worst possible ingredients for the amplification and the spread of infectious disease. It doesn’t matter if it’s Covid, doesn’t matter if it’s polio, doesn’t matter if it’s measles, doesn’t matter if it’s cholera. .
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Covid, doesn’t matter if it’s polio, doesn’t matter if it’s measles, doesn’t matter if it’s cholera.
“You put that many people in desperation on the move, women and children packed together in basements, people stressed, people not eating, not sleeping, these are the conditions in which immune systems are weak, people’s defences are low and infectious diseases can rip through populations like this.”
He added that an outbreak of infectious diseases is “one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse”.
This conflict is playing out in what is still a somewhat precarious time with the coronavirus pandemic and only 34 percent of Ukraine’s population are fully vaccinated.
Furthermore, none of the countries surrounding Ukraine, excluding Hungary, have fully vaccinated more than 60 percent of their populations.
The WHO have declared the need for a ceasefire and for peace in order to prevent this health crisis worsening as reports emerge of ‘covid cough’ and other ailments in bunkers and other areas where Ukrainians find themselves hiding.
During the press conference Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed: “So far, WHO has verified 18 attacks on health facilities, health workers and ambulances, including 10 deaths and 16 injuries.”
Dr Ryan said: “It is the violence, and it is the conflict that is driving this health crisis. And this health crisis will not stop, it will only get worse, unless we have ceasefire, unless we have peace and Tedros said that quite clearly.”
Shortly after the press briefing was brought to a close, reports announced that a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol had been hit by a Russian air strike during an agreed ceasefire.
In Ukraine 1,000 healthcare facilities including hospitals are either on the front lines or within ten kilometres.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, children are amongst those trapped under the wreckage in what he has called a war crime.
No deaths have been confirmed but the Governor of Donetsk region said the number of injured stands at 17 including women in labour.
Since the beginning of the conflict, maternity wards have been reported to be in disarray after scores of women have gone into labour, many prematurely due to stress and panic.
The health crisis felt in Ukraine is set to worsen as reports suggest that the country is low on oxygen, children’s vaccinations, insulin, blood products, HIV medicines and surgical and protective items.
Cancer treatments have also been severely impacted by the conflict.
Dr Ryan stated: “Some hospitals are being abandoned by the authorities because they simply cannot function and there is an attempt to move hospital equipment and doctors and nurses around” in what he calls “an extremely complex health response.”
The WHO said that the supply of these lacking essentials is of top priority, but Dr Ryan added in his statement that the current response to the health crisis “is putting bandages on mortal wounds right now and I think the world has to wake up to that as a reality.”
Michel Kazatchkine former UNAIDS special envoy spoke to Channel 4 News: “the number of places that have very limited stocks now, the problem is not to bring medicines into Ukraine.
“The problem is to deliver those medicines inside the country to where they are needed as moving around in the country is becoming more and more difficult.”
CLOSE THE SKY: Ukraine's president has told Sky News that his country cannot stop the war against Russia on its own and said nations must act now before it is "too late".
Speaking to Sky News' special correspondent Alex Crawford inside the leader's office in Ukraine's capital city, Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his call for the West to impose a no-fly zone.
He accused countries of being indecisive on the issue of "closing" the skies against what he called "the Nazis" - and said of Western nations: "You can't decide to close or not to close... you can't decide.
"If you are united against the Nazis and this terror, you have to close. Don't wait for me ask you several times, a million times. Close the sky.
Close the sky and stop the bombing," he said, appealing for the world to act faster.
Asked about Western concerns around the potential of a no-fly zone escalating the conflict, and bringing about a direct confrontation with Russia making it worse, he said: "Worse for whom? For our families? No... For them..? Who knows? Nobody knows. But we know that exactly that now is very bad. And in future it will be too late.
"Believe me, if it's prolonged this way, you will see... they will close the sky but we will lose millions of people."
He added: "The third world war will start and only then you will make a no-fly zone - but it will be too late."
DIGITAL CURRENCY : Biden signs cryptocurrency executive order, hoping to advance a digital dollar and other innovations
The Biden administration is tackling cryptocurrency and blockchain with a new executive order meant to promote future innovation in the industry while minimizing the financial risks to Americans and the global financial system.
The order, which President Joe Biden is expected to sign Wednesday, will hasten the research and possible creation of the Federal Reserve's own digital currency, pushes for greater support for innovation in blockchain technology and works to ensure the new systems won't increase inequality or financial swings.
Agencies like the Commerce, State and Treasury departments, as well as the Federal Reserve, have been working with or researching cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies for years.
The latest executive order, developed in conversations with major industry players, is bringing in the entire administration to the effort.
The administration's executive order is the most significant intervention the federal government has taken into cryptocurrency and blockchain technology so far.
The order instructs federal agencies to collaborate on digital assets in six areas: consumer and investor protection; financial stability; illicit finance; U.S. leadership in the global financial system and economic competitiveness; financial inclusion; and responsible innovation.
Per the order, the Treasury Department will come up with recommendations for consumer financial health and protection. It will also further research the future of payment systems, like cryptocurrency.
Other departments will determine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrency and blockchain, with reports to be delivered to Biden over the next six months.
The Commerce Department is tasked with ensuring that the U.S. financial system and the dollar remain central to global finance by understanding how to leverage digital assets in that goal.
"Our assessment of the risks and potential benefits of digital assets must include an understanding of how our financial system does and does not meet the current needs of consumers in a manner that is equitable, inclusive and efficient," said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Current American payment systems are in many ways "antiquated" and can leave consumers with "options that are slow, costly or altogether inaccessible", particularly for international transactions, the official said.
Yet many economists studying the space have expressed concern about the volatility of some cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens and other digital assets, as well as the threat that new financial technologies may allow for illicit conduct.
The administration denies that the rollout of the executive order is affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Senior officials are also confident that cryptocurrencies can't serve as an effective workaround for sanctions the U.S. and its allies have imposed on Russian elites and financial intuitions, especially the Russian Central Bank.
Russian banks and citizens have been rushing to transfer their assets into cryptocurrency as the ruble tumbles in value under severe Western sanctions meant to curtail the Kremlin's war machine.
Countries around the world are taking divergent views on cryptocurrency and other so-called "Web3" technologies based on blockchain. The European Parliament will vote on March 14 whether to pass a comprehensive cryptocurrency bill that would add regulations across the continent but not ban the technology.
NUCLEAR: If Tehran reaches the nuclear threshold, it will become even more dangerous to world peace, says Benny Gantz.
Israel’s defense minister said on Monday that the time to act on Iran was now, before the ayatollahs’ regime was protected by a “nuclear canopy.”
“The world must mobilize to stop Iranian aggression,” said Benny Gantz in a post on social media, a day after Israel announced that the Israel Defense Forces had intercepted Iranian drones en route from Iran to Gaza last year.
Whether or not a new nuclear agreement is signed in Vienna between Iran and world powers, said Gantz, “it will not be the end of the road for us—nor should it be for the countries of the region and the world, which must continue to act against Iranian aggression.”
The State of Israel and its defense establishment would take all necessary measures, “political, economic and if needed, also military,” in order to defend our sovereignty and ensure the security of the citizens of Israel.”
Iran’s aggression, said Gantz, “whether it emanates from Iranian territory or through Iranian proxies, is a threat to global peace and to regional stability, as well as a threat to the State of Israel.”
It is now, while a nuclear agreement is being negotiated in Vienna, he continued, that we must remember: “If Iran reaches the nuclear threshold, it will become even more dangerous to world peace.
Now is the time for the world to mobilize to stop it. As I have said in the past, the State of Israel will take all the measures necessary to prevent Iran from becoming an existential threat.”
GREEN LIGHT: NATO countries have "green light" to send fighter jets to Ukraine
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that NATO members have the go-ahead to send fighter jets to Ukraine as the U.S. and allies continue their efforts to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia's invasion.
"That gets a green-light," Blinken said in an interview with "Face the Nation" when asked whether the Polish government, a member of NATO, could send fighter planes to Ukraine.
"In fact, we're talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if in fact they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians. What can we do? How can we help to make sure that they get something to backfill the planes that they are handing over to the Ukrainians?"
A White House spokesperson told CBS News the Biden administration is evaluating the capabilities it could provide to backfill jets to Poland if it decided to transfer planes to Ukraine but noted there are several questions that arise from a decision to do so, including how the jets could be transferred from Poland to Ukraine.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., told "Face the Nation" she hopes Ukraine will receive fighter jets from Poland "as soon as possible."
"We are working with our American, especially, friends and allies, on the steady supply of all the ammunition and anti-air, anti-tank and planes to be able to effectively defend our country," she said.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked worldwide support for the Ukrainian people and a united response from the West.
The U.S. and European allies have provided military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia's biggest financial institutions, Russian oligarchs and top officials in Moscow, including President Vladimir Putin himself and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as part of efforts to cut the country off from the global financial system. Putin on Saturday said the sanctions are "like a war."
Blinken, who was in eastern Europe meeting with U.S. allies, said NATO countries and members of the Group of 7 are "working together" to raise the pressure on Russia, including through additional sanctions, which will be implemented in the coming days.
"The impact of the sanctions is already devastating," the secretary of state said. "The ruble is in freefall. Their stock market's been shuttered for almost a week. We're seeing a recession set in in Russia. Consumers aren't able to buy basic products because companies are fleeing Russia, so it's having a big impact."
Still, Blinken noted that Putin is "doubling down and digging in on this aggression against Ukraine."
"I think we have to be prepared, unfortunately, tragically, for this to go on for some time," he said.
Markarova said Ukraine is thankful to the West for its continued support but suggested the international community needs to respond quicker because the Russians are "escalating" their attacks.
"It's clear after 11 days that we also need all of us to move faster," she said. Ukraine, she continued, did not provoke an attack from Russia.
"We were not a threat to Russia unless being a peaceful democracy and just peacefully living in your own country is a threat," she said. "And if it's so, then it's not only about Ukraine, then Europe and the whole world is not safe."
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: Iran inches closer to nuclear deal as Western officials suggest progress made at reviving 2015 accord with world powers
Iran’s foreign minister said on Friday he was prepared to go to Vienna “immediately” to sign a deal with the US to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, but warned he would only do so if western negotiators agreed to meet Tehran’s outstanding demands.
The comments from Hossein Amirabdollahian came as western officials suggested they were inching closer to securing an agreement at indirect talks between Tehran and the Biden administration in the Austrian capital. But they are also pressuring Iran to quickly agree on final issues after 11 months of negotiations to save the accord abandoned by then US president Donald Trump.
“We are ready to finalise a good agreement immediately . . . but the western parties’ rush to conclude a deal cannot prevent Iran’s red lines from being observed,”
Amirabdollahian told the EU, according to Iran’s foreign ministry. “I am ready to go to Vienna as soon as western parties accept to observe our remaining red lines.”
The deal’s signatories also include Germany, France, UK, Russia and China. Western officials have been warning for weeks that time is running out to save the deal because of the scale of Iran’s nuclear advances, with the Islamic republic enriching uranium close to weapons-grade. But Tehran has insisted it will not seal an agreement at any cost and will not be rushed.
A US state department spokesperson said on Thursday that there had been “significant progress” at the talks, adding that “if Iran shows seriousness, we can and should reach an understanding of mutual return to full implementation” of the accord “within days”.
But she warned that “a number of difficult issues still remain unsolved”. Stephanie al-Qaq, a senior British diplomat at the talks, said on Friday “we are close” to a deal, adding that European officials were briefly leaving Vienna to update their ministers.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was scheduled to be in Tehran on Saturday to discuss one of the points holding up progress at the talks: a dispute over a stalled probe by the UN’s nuclear watchdog into traces of uranium found at old, undeclared sites.
Tehran wants the probe concluded, but Grossi said this week that “people cannot foresee a return” to the nuclear accord if there were unresolved issues with the IAEA.
Other key sticking points include Tehran’s demands that the Biden administration provide guarantees that no future US president can unilaterally abandon the deal. The crisis was triggered when Trump withdrew the US from the accord in 2018 and imposed hundreds of sanctions on the Islamic republic.
Diplomats and analysts say it is virtually impossible for President Joe Biden to offer the guarantees that Tehran is seeking, but negotiators have been working on some sort of assurances.
There is also disagreement over which US sanctions would be lifted if Iran reverses its nuclear activity to agreed limits. Tehran wants all Trump-era sanctions lifted, including those related to alleged human rights abuses, regional activities and terrorism allegations, not just economic measures.
Trump imposed sanctions on dozens of senior Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi before he came to power last year, and the office of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. He also designated the elite Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organisation.
If a deal is secured, Iran would be able to ramp up its oil exports as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed crude prices to decade-long highs, with prices above $100 a barrel.
Iran is estimated to be exporting about 1mn barrels of crude a day, but Javad Owji, the oil minister, was quoted this week as saying the Islamic republic could reach its “maximum oil production capacity in less than two months” if sanctions are lifted. Iran’s oil exports hit a peak of about 2.5mn barrels a day before Trump abandoned the nuclear accord.
But analysts said the risk was that the Ukraine crisis and soaring energy prices could lead Tehran into believing that its position at the negotiating table had strengthened.
DARKEST DAYS: Europe is facing its 'darkest days' since second World War says UN Leader
EUROPE is facing its 'darkest days' since the second World War, according to the United Nations as the Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifies.
UN Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: "Europe is seeing destruction and displacement on a scale not seen the darkest days of the last century".
Putin's forces were accused of deliberately killing Ukrainian civilians today after 47 people died in one attack allegedly using deadly cluster bombs.
Foreign Affairs / Russia Warns US To Stop Arming Ukraine, Sends Formal Letter Warning by Gospelpreacher1: 9:59pm On Apr 16, 2022