Iranian Parliament Gives Backing To Nuclear Deal
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Iran's official IRNA news agency reports the Iranian parliament has given its backing to the government to implement a nuclear deal with world powers.
 BBC News |
Insurgents Shell Russian Embassy in Syria During Rally
ABC News Insurgents fired two shells at the Russian embassy in the Syrian capital on Tuesday as hundreds of pro-government supporters gathered outside the compound to thank Moscow for its intervention in Syria. An Associated Press reporter was outside the ... Syria conflict: Shells hit Russian embassy compoundBBC News Rocket Attack Hits Russian Embassy in Syrian CapitalVoice of America Several shells explode outside Russian embassy in Damascus during pro-RussiarallyRT Deutsche Welle-Reuters UK all 182 news articles » |
Two rockets have hit the Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital as pro-government supporters gathered outside to thank Moscow for its intervention in Syria.
 Московский комсомолец |
Посольство России в Дамаске обстреляли из минометов
BBC Russian Как сообщает агентство Ассошиэйтед Пресс, у здания собрались манифестанты, чтобы "выразить поддержку" действий России в Сирии. Как сообщил агентству РИА Новости сотрудник посольства, на территории комплекса упали две мины. При этом никто не пострадал. Посольство России в Дамаске попало под минометный обстрелРБК Посольство России в Дамаске подверглось обстрелуРИА Новости В Сирии на территорию посольства России упали две миныКоммерсантъ ИА REGNUM -Известия -Утро.Ru Все похожие статьи: 84 » |
UN Envoy to Discuss Syria, US Cooperation on Russia Visitby webdesk@voanews.com (Carla Babb)
U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is holding talks Tuesday in Russia as part of an effort to forge an understanding between Russian and U.S. officials and also move toward a political process to end the Syrian conflict. De Mistura plans to fly later to Washington for talks there as well. He said during a briefing Monday in Geneva that while fighting terrorists in Syria is important, there also needs to be a parallel political process and the involvement of regional players in order to resolve the crisis that has persisted since March 2011. "Let us remember that most of the refugees left Syria well before ISIS [Islamic State] took over almost one-third of the country," he said. "In fact, they left because of the fighting between the government and what was at the time called the mainstream opposition." De Mistura said Russia's military action has brought "new dynamics" to the situation in Syria. He said he planned to discuss medical evacuations for dozens of wounded people in northwestern Syria as well as a number of other urgent issues related to the conflict and the escalation since Russia began airstrikes two weeks ago. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said advances have been made in working with Washington on fighting in Syria. "We still don't 100 percent share the same view on the situation up to every step with our partners in the region, with the Americans, with our other colleagues, but we absolutely have progress," Lavrov said. Intense fighting The talks come as Syria sees its heaviest fighting in weeks. Syrian government troops advanced under cover of Russian airstrikes Monday and the United States airdropped 50 tons of small arms ammunition to rebels in northern Syria. Government forces battled rebels in a strategic area in the central province of Hama, hoping to regain the Sahl al-Ghab plain. The fighting was focused on the village of Kfar Nabudeh with Syria’s army command saying it had captured the village, extending its advance toward the key Damascus-Aleppo Highway. Activists said the rebels repelled the attack. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the clashes were the “fiercest” since the Russian air campaign began at the end of September. Russia's Defense Ministry says its aircraft hit 53 targets in Syria in the past 24 hours, in Hama, Homs, Latakia and Idlib provinces. The U.S.-led, anti-Islamic State coalition forces continued to strike Islamic State targets Monday, destroying terrorist tactical units near al-Hasakah and Washiya. The coalition conducted 18 strikes in Iraq, including near Bayji, Fallujah and Mosul, according to the U.S. Central Command, which overseas U.S. forces in the Middle East. US airdrop The U.S. airdrop of small arms Sunday reached “Syrian Arab groups whose leaders were appropriately vetted by the United States and have been fighting to remove ISIL,” said coalition spokesman Colonel Steve Warren. He would not give further details about the groups or their locations in Syria due to “operational security.” A U.S. defense official described the airdrop as a new “normal” occurrence that coalition forces would continue to conduct “as needed.” The airdrop supports the Pentagon’s recent decision to “pause” its failed Syrian rebel train and equip program. Instead of training and equipping moderate rebel fighters outside of Syria, White House officials announced Friday the program would ramp up materiel support to trusted units fighting on Syrian battlefields, while training only rebel leaders in Turkey. The drop is a reminder of an operation last year when U.S. forces airdropped supplies to Syrian Kurds battling Islamic State forces for the town of Kobani. The group was able to successfully repel Islamic State fighters from the town. “This airdrop seeks to build on the success those forces have had clearing ISIL from Syrian territory,” Warren said. 'Worrying elements' The European Council on Monday called for Russia to "immediately" end military attacks in Syria that do not target Islamic State or other U.N.-designated terrorist organizations. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Russia's military action in Syria is a "game-changer" that has "some very worrying elements." Before an EU foreign ministers meeting Monday in Luxembourg, Mogherini said actions against Islamic State militants have to clearly be carried out against that group and other terrorists defined by the United Nations. She said she believes the European Union, Russia and the United States have common ground in Syria based on U.N. Security Council resolutions and a U.N. framework, but that their action must be coordinated. Otherwise, she said, there are "extremely dangerous" risks, particularly militarily. On Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama told CBS television's 60 Minutes that Russia's intervention in Syria is aimed at saving Assad's government. "Syria was Russia's only ally in the region," Obama said. "And today, rather than being able to count on their support and maintain the base they had in Syria, which they've had for a long time. Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally." Lisa Schlein and Chris Hannas contributed to this report.
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LIVE UPDATES: Two shells struck the Russian embassy in Damascus this morning as a rally in support of Russia’s military intervention was under way.
The previous post in our Putin in Syria column can be found here.
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Moscow Continues to Prepare Militants for Ukraine -- But They Threaten Russia as Well by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, October 13 – Although the ceasefire in the Donbas appears to be holding for now and although the world’s attention has shifted from Ukraine to Syria and the EU refugee crisis, Moscow continues to openly prepare militants for the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” in camps around the country.
But as disturbing as this reality is for Ukraine, it may be a threat to Russia itself because among the instructors in these camps are not only veterans of the war in Ukraine but also Russian neo-Nazis and other national extremists, according to illustrated stories the organizers have posted online (vlada.io/v-rossii-deystvuyut-lagerya-po-podgotovke-boevikov-dnr-i-lnr/).
And lest anyone think that these camps are simply a holdover from the period of the most intense Russian aggression against Ukraine, it should be pointed out that the last intake of recruits to one of them near Moscow occurred not months ago but on September 26-27, 2015, and involved some 300 young men, according to their organizers (enotcorp.org).
In his report for Vlada.io, Denis Kazansky reproduces pictures offered by the organizers of these camps as well as summarizing what they say on their websites. Both the pictures and the declarations of the militants are frightening not only for Ukrainians but also for Russians concerned about their future.
“In Russia,” Kazansky writes, “camps for the preparation of militants of the DNR and LNR openly operate and in which the terrorists train themselves and also instruct in the art of war youths of school age,” with courses on using weapons and killing Ukrainians. Some of these camps are situated “not far from the Russian capital.”
These training centers clearly enjoy the support of at least some in the Moscow Patriarchate – priests are shown blessing the once and future combatants – and they could not be functioning without the knowledge and almost certainly the approval of at least some elements of the Russian government.
What is especially disturbing is the participation as instructors of fighters who display openly racist and neo-Nazi views, views that threaten Ukrainians whom the inductees are trained to hate as well as Russians who may not share their views and against whom such militants might be used in the future.The existence of these camps and the fact that they operate entirely openly suggests that Moscow wants to have a reliable source of cadres in the event it renews its military aggression in Ukraine and that some in Moscow want to make sure that they have the ability to push Russia in the direction they want, by force if necessary.
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 Reuters |
Turkey warns US, Russia against backing Kurdish militia in Syria
Reuters ANKARA Turkey has warned the United States and Russia it will not tolerate Kurdish territorial gains by Kurdish militia close to its frontiers in north-western Syria, two senior officials said. "This is clear cut for us and there is no joking about it ... and more » |
 Tibet Post International |
2 Soldiers Killed in Tunisia Violence After Nobel Prize
New York Times TUNIS, Tunisia — Two Tunisian soldiers were killed and three wounded in clashes with extremists near the Algerian border, Tunisia's Defense Ministry said Monday, days after Tunisian mediators won the Nobel Peace Prize for averting civil war. A group ... The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 - Press Release - Nobelprize.orgNobelprize.org Crisis Group Congratulates the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet ...International Crisis Group What is the Arab Spring? - Middle East Issues - About.comMiddle East Issues - About.com all 83 news articles » |
74-year-old Briton's family believe the punishment will kill him as they appeal to David Cameron for help
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A leading figure of the Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist group Abu Omar al-Shishani was killed during the bombing of an ISIL convoy, IRNA reported citing an Iraqi source.
October 13, 2015, 1:17 AM (IDT)
Russian air strikes are now running at 60 per day in an effort to retilt the battle for Hama in favor of Syrian government and Hizballah forces against Syrian rebels. DEBKAfile: The battle raging since the middle of last week will decide who controls the strategic Rte 5 which links Aleppo to Damascus via Homs and Hama.
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October 13, 2015, 1:20 AM (IDT)
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi does not appear to have been among the eight senior figures killed in Iraqi air strikes on their meeting at Karbala in western Iraq Sunday or the convoy heading there with Baghdadi. Iraqi officials said Baghdadi had been driven away from the convoy in an unknown condition. A US military official in Baghdad said there were no indications Baghdadi was killed or injured during the operation.
 Politico |
What top Clinton donors really think
Politico SAN FRANCISCO — As Hillary Clinton heads into the first Democratic debate Tuesday, some of her top donors and allies are feeling encouraged for the first time in months. But they're also filled with deep anxiety about Joe Biden's potential candidacy, ... Democratic Debate a Breakout Chance for O'Malley, OthersNew York Times Democratic debate: Can anyone disrupt the Hillary vs. Bernie show?Christian Science Monitor Poll: O'Malley gets 4 percent support from home stateWashington Post Huffington Post -USA TODAY all 765 CNN all 721 news articles » |
Honduran bank slated for liquidation remains closedby Freddy Cuevas | AP
Government officials in Honduras say a bank caught up in a United States money laundering investigation will remain closed until Wednesday and will eventually be liquidated.
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Rather than easing as a result of July’s nuclear deal, strains between Washington and Tehran are increasing across a wide spectrum of issues, including Iran convicting a U.S. journalist and testing a ballistic missile.
Syria troops advance under Russian air coverby Associated Press
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it struck 53 alleged Islamic State targets in 24 hours.
Douglas Jehl of the Washington Post says an appeal will be filed against Jason Rezaian's conviction.
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Syrian Army tanks advanced through the north of the Latakia Governorate on with the help of Russian air support.
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What next for Syria? | DW News by deutschewelleenglish
Read more: http://www.dw.com/en/eu-urges-russia-to-end-airstrikes-push-political-solution-in-syria/a-18777254
The West has long been reluctant to engage with Syria's President Assad. But faced with Russia's military intervention, EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg today seemed increasingly willing to put all options back on the table.
Russia's involvement in Syria deepens | DW Newsby deutschewelleenglish
In Syria, Russian airstrikes are bolstering President Assad's forces and have allowed them to make significant gains against moderate opposition groups. What does the Kremlin do to win over Russian public opinion for its military campaign?
Published on Oct 12, 2015
"We cannot work with Assad as the long term solution for the future of Syria", said Monday the British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, in Luxembourg, at his arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council.
"We cannot work with Assad as the long term solution for the future of Syria", said Monday the British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, in Luxembourg, at his arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council.
Countries are amassing cyberweaponry on an unprecedented scale and reconfiguring militaries to meet the threat of cyberwar. Photo: Getty Images.
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The funerals of the victims of the bomb attacks during a peace rally in Ankara have continues, as the Turkey's Prime Minster says IS is the prime suspect.
MOSCOW (AP) — Highlighting a new terror threat to Russia raised by its air campaign in Syria, security officials said Monday they have thwarted a planned attack on Moscow public transport system by militants trained by the Islamic State group.
Sunday’s arrest of several terror suspects — some of whom, intelligence officials say, were trained by IS in Syria — has brought back memories of the string of deadly bombings that struck the Russian capital just a few years ago.
The post Russia arrests IS-linked suspects who plotted terror attack appeared first on In Homeland Security.
What happens when you go from top gun to foot soldier?
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Terence Olridge was heading to his job as a police officer when he and a neighbor were involved in an argument that escalated into a shootout in a normally quiet neighborhood in suburban Memphis, authorities said....
(JERUSALEM) — Palestinians carried out three stabbings Monday in Jerusalem, leaving a teenage Israeli boy in critical condition, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily accused the country’s Arab leaders of helping incite weeks of violence. Two of the attackers, both teenage boys, were killed.
In a fiery speech at parliament, Netanyahu accused Arab parties of “undermining” the country. He called on Israel’s Arab citizens to “kick out the extremists among you.”
Netanyahu spoke on another bloody day, the latest in a monthlong wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
In a new setback for efforts to restore calm, the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia postponed a trip to the region. Edgar Vasquez, a spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs, said it was at the request of the Israeli government due to the circumstances.
Israeli police reported three separate stabbings across the city, including an assault by two attackers in the east Jerusalem area of Pisgat Zeev. Police said the pair seriously wounded a 20-year-old man before attacking a teenage boy on a bicycle.
The boy was critically wounded before police shot and killed one of the attackers, while the second was run over by a car. Abdel Nasser Manasra, a relative of Ahmed, 13, and Hassan, 15, said both were cousins. He did not know which had been killed.
Other attacks occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City, where a 17-year-old assailant was killed, and outside the national police headquarters. The attacker, identified as a 16-year-old girl, was shot and wounded, while a police officer was lightly hurt.
The unrest began last month with clashes at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site and quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Five Israelis have been killed in stabbings, a shooting and a stoning attack on a moving vehicle, while at least 25 Palestinians, including 10 attackers, have been slain. Several Palestinian children, including a 2-year-old girl killed with her mother in a Gaza airstrike, have been among the dead. Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded in clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank.
The stabbings have rattled Israel. The attackers, many of them teenagers, have had no affiliation with militant groups, and the seemingly random nature of the stabbings has made it difficult to predict or prevent them.
Netanyahu has come under heavy criticism for failing to stop the violence, and an opinion poll this week showed that more than 70 percent of the public is dissatisfied with his handling of the crisis.
The violence erupted over the Jewish New Year last month, fueled by rumors that Israel was plotting to take over a site holy to both Muslims and Jews. The rumors ignited clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian activists who hurled stones and firebombs at them from inside the mosque, and the violence has spread.
Israel has dismissed the rumors as slanderous and repeatedly said there are no plans to alter a longstanding status quo at the spot, revered by Jews as the site of the biblical Temples and today home to Islam’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. Since then, under an agreement with Jordan, non-Muslims have been allowed to visit the hilltop compound, but not pray there. Jordan retains custodial rights over the Muslim holy sites.
In his speech, Netanyahu dismissed the Palestinian accusations as a “total lie” and accused the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, the militant group Hamas and Israel’s own Islamic Movement of incitement. He called on President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, to condemn the violence.
But Netanyahu also went after Arab lawmakers in the chamber, accusing two of them of supporting the violence against Israelis. “It is unbelievable that an Israeli member of parliament calls for terror attacks against Israelis,” he said.
In a message to the Arab public, he urged them “to kick out the extremists among you,” and said he was committed to coexistence.
Israel’s Arab minority makes up about 20 percent of the country’s 8 million people. While they have full citizenship rights, they often suffer discrimination in such areas as jobs and housing. Mistrust of Netanyahu remains high following his election day appeal for supporters to go to the polls, warning them that Arabs were voting “in droves.”
The unrest has also exposed divisions in the Arab community itself. In an exchange broadcast on Israeli TV, the mayor of the Arab city of Nazareth scolded Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab party in parliament.
Mayor Ali Salem said harsh rhetoric by Arab lawmakers had kept Jewish tourists from visiting his city, hurting residents’ livelihoods.
“Ayman, go look someplace else. You’ve ruined the city!” he screamed as Odeh was about to be interviewed by a TV station. “There wasn’t even a single Jew here today. Not even one!”
Both Netanyahu and Abbas have been unable to contain the violence, and both men have been constrained by outside pressures.
Netanyahu is under intense pressure from his hard-line coalition partners to launch a crackdown. Israel has already deployed thousands of police and soldiers across Israel and the West Bank, and Netanyahu is considering a ban on the Islamic Movement.
But taking even tougher action could risk provoking even more unrest. Netanyahu has coupled his tough rhetoric with calls for resuming peace talks. In an attempt to ease tensions, he has banned Israeli lawmakers from visiting the holy site in Jerusalem.
While Abbas has spoken out against violence, he is deeply unpopular at home due to the failure of peace talks and lack of hope for ending nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation. He also cannot be seen as abandoning what the Palestinians view as their defense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
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A political crisis has escalated, with some analysts warning that Iraq’s Kurdish region is close to splitting.
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Today's Headlines and Commentaryby Elina Saxena, Quinta Jurecic
Two consecutive bomb blasts rocked a peace rally in Ankara on Saturday, leaving at least 95 killed and 246 injured in the largest terrorist attack in the history of modern Turkey. The protesters, mostly leftist and Kurdish activists, had gathered in Ankara to rally against the recent resumption of conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdish PKK. The New York Times has the details on the attack, which occurred amid rising violence related to Kurdish rebels and the Islamic State, general political and economic instability, and regional tensions from the Syrian conflict and its refugees.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu suggested that Turkish authorities believe the attack to have been carried out by ISIS suicide bombers, though ISIS has not yet claimed any responsibility for the bombing. Yet the Wall Street Journal also notes Davutoğlu’s refusal to rule out the possibility of involvement by the PKK or the DHKP-C, a Marxist-Leninist group that has been responsible for violent attacks in the past. Turkish authorities say they may be close to identifying one of the bombers.
While investigators puzzle over the question of ISIS responsibility, the AP points out that the Islamic State may have the most to gain from a government crackdown on Kurdish forces in the wake of the bombing. Increasing tensions following the attack in Ankara may lead to a more forceful domestic campaign against the PKK, which would draw Turkish military force away from ISIS in Syria.
With Turkey’s November 1st election approaching, Reuters writes that the attacks have already elevated tensions between Turkey’s rival political factions, with critics of the government condemning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “at best for intelligence failings [and] at worst for complicity in a bid to stir up nationalist sentiment” in the hopes of winning the election. Hurriyet has more on thepolitical response to the attacks.
Police have used tear gas to prevent mourners, protesters, and pro-Kurdish politicians from approaching the site of the bombing, Al Jazeera writes. Immediately following the attacks, thegovernment imposed a media ban on coverage of the bombing and blocked social media platformsacross the country. Defense One and The Independent have more on what Defense One calls “the continued erosion of free speech within one of the world’s most important Muslim democracies.”
Hours after the attack, the PKK “announced a temporary ceasefire to allow the Nov. 1 elections to proceed in a secure environment.” The group has promised to hold to the ceasefire even after the Turkish government rejected its proposal, Reuters reports. Turkish airstrikes have continued against the PKK in the country’s southeast.
In Iraq, airstrikes have killed eight senior Islamic State figures--though Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was not among them, despite an announcement by the Iraqi military that the strikes had targeted Baghdadi’s convoy. According to Reuters, Iraq stated that Baghdadi had “been driven away from the convoy in unknown condition,” but U.S. officials said that there was no indication that the ISIS leader had been killed or wounded.
Russia has doubled its airstrikes over Syria to 60 a day, Russian state media announced this weekend. And with U.S.-backed rebels increasingly relying on American anti-tank missiles, the Timessuggests that “a proxy war between the United States and Russia is joining the list of interlocking conflicts in Syria.” The Post agrees, pointing to the “dozens” of Youtube videos “showing rebels firing the U.S.-made missiles at Russian-made tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the Syrian army.” The missiles were intended to precipitate negotiations for Assad’s exit and were “supplied mostly from stocks owned by Saudi Arabia, delivered across the Turkish border and stamped with CIA approval” in what one expert referred to as a “proxy war by happenstance.”
The Guardian reports that an unknown number of men were detained in Moscow after a raid yielded an IED with 5 kilograms of explosives. Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, alleged that “two men claimed they had been trained by ISIS militants and were plotting a terrorist attack on Moscow’s public transport.”
E.U. foreign ministers have issued a joint declaration calling for the departure of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, though they allowed that a transition away from the Assad regime was not immediately necessary. The foreign ministers also demanded that Russia halt its air campaign over Syria. Politico has more.
Meanwhile, Reuters reveals that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently reached out to one of the Assad regime’s fiercest opponents in a meeting with the Saudi Arabian defense minister. And theTimes reports that Iraqi Shiites have hailed “Sheikh Putin” for Russia’s involvement in the conflict, viewing him “as a leader with the vision and determination to bring stability to Iraq” in their fight against the Islamic State.
On Sunday, President Obama sat down to address the situation in Syria on 60 Minutes. The Postgives us a rundown of his comments on the subject, with one big takeaway: the president “wants to keep the United States from becoming more deeply involved militarily in a place where he believes that the American force offers no viable, long-term solutions.”
Over the course of his 60 Minutes interview, Obama also confirmed that the administration knew of Putin’s impending involvement in Syria when the two leaders met at the United Nations. Over at theDaily Beast, Shane Harris also weighs in on the question of U.S. intelligence assessments on Russian activity in Syria. While a congressional inquiry is underway to investigate lawmakers’ claims that they did not receive adequate briefing on Russia’s military buildup in Syria, U.S. intelligence officials have repeatedly maintained that “any suggestion that the intelligence community was surprised by Russia’s military support to the Assad regime is misleading.”
Confused about the network of alliances and enmities in Syria? The Guardian is here to help, with a handy diagram of the various parties and their level of support for different Syrian factions.
In the Atlantic, Dominic Tierney considers why the Islamic State continues to enjoy success despite its brutal tactics. His answer? The problem lies in the anti-ISIS coalition’s “disinterest,” its “disunity,” and its failure to seize the narrative from the extremist group.
In Afghanistan, two American troops were killed when a coalition helicopter crashed in Kabul on Sunday. The crash killed five and wounded five others in the “third mass-casualty event involving transport aircraft in the war-torn country in three months. Also in Kabul, a suicide car bombertargeted a convoy of foreign troops and left an unknown number of civilian casualties.
The U.N. suggests that the Afghan Taliban’s reach is the largest it has been since 2001, according to the Times. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) “has evacuated four of its 13 provincial offices around the country” due to security concerns.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera highlights the Taliban’s growing insurgency as fighting increases around the provincial capital of Ghazni. Government officials in the area claimed to have repelled Taliban offenses from Ghazni though al Jazeera suggests that “government soldiers and police are struggling to cope with a string of Taliban gains in the aftermath of the withdrawal of most NATO forces last year.”
Escalating tensions in Israel left more casualties over the weekend and show no signs of easing.Reuters writes that “four Israelis and 24 Palestinians, including eight children, have died in 12 days of bloodshed.” The violence has been “fueled in part by Muslim anger over increasing Jewish access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem and with Palestinians attacking Israelis with knives, rocks and, in at least one incident, guns.” The Israeli government has authorized emergency measures as well as a minimum four-year jail sentence for Palestinian “petrol bombers and rock throwers.” Two Palestinians were shot and another two were injured on Monday after they attacked Israelis, and according to the Journal, a retaliatory strike left a pregnant Palestinian woman and her young daughter dead. The strike came after rockets from Hamas facilities in the Gaza strip were fired on Saturday; the rockets were deflected by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
Turning to Iran, the Post writes that reporter Jason Rezaian has been convicted in an espionage trial.Rezaian was arrested in July 2014 when he was charged with espionage, and his trial has been shrouded in secrecy. State Department spokesman John Kirby called on Iran "to drop all charges against Jason and release him immediately." The Times notes that “Iranian leaders, including President Hassan Rouhani, have raised the idea of a prisoner swap, suggesting that Mr. Rezaian, 39, could be exchanged for people that Tehran says are being held by or on the orders of the United States for violating sanctions.”
CNN describes the implications of Iran's successful testing of a new precision-guided, long-range missile. While these are the first Iranian long range missiles that can reach Israel, Iran maintains that the missiles are simply for deterrence purposes. The Times suggests that the testing may have violated the nuclear agreement reached with the P5+1.
The Post examines the ongoing effects of the refugee and migration crisis on Europe’s internal borders. Across the European Union, cross-border train service has halted as countries grapple with the arrival of refugees and migrants, and many Europeans are concerned by the potential impact of reinstating a border system that had largely melted away.
The results are in on the Belarusian presidential election, and President Alexander Lukashenko has cruised to a fifth term in power with a whopping 83.5% of the vote. The election has widely been understood as a “farce,” the Guardian tells us, though Lukashenko appears to be genuinely popular within Belarus. Meanwhile, the European Union has declared its intention to lift its sanctions on Belarus for a four-month period by October 31st if no violence follows in the election’s wake.
The Ugandan army has committed to withdrawing from South Sudan by the end of the week, the BBC reports. Uganda’s withdrawal was a key component in the peace deal reached in August, though foreign forces were originally required to withdraw by October 10th. The South Sudanese government has praised Uganda’s intervention as preventing further violence, though rebels have sharply criticized the Ugandan presence as evidence of imperialism.
On Saturday, at least five Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked a Chadian village providing shelter to thousands of Nigerian refugees. The Guardian writes that reports conflict on whether or not the bombings directly targeted the Dar-es-Salaam refugee camp. The attack appears to be the most intricate yet staged by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region.
In a rare public appearance on Saturday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un announced that his country is “capable of fighting any kind of war provoked by the US.” AFP describes his statement as a “particularly pointed message of defiance,” even compared to the DPRK’s usual aggressions.
The Obama administration has decided not to pursue a controversial policy of mandating technology firms to build “backdoors” into encrypted technology, the Times reports. The White House had been weighing the policy change in order to ensure law enforcement and intelligence agencies’ access to potentially crucial information in the midst of government concerns over “going dark.” Bloombergwrites that tech firms are rejoicing over the decision, as many firms feared that a mandatory “backdoor” policy would seriously weaken data security.
Reuters tells us that cybersecurity insurance has skyrocketed in recent months, especially for health insurers. The rising rate of insurance--up an average of 32% since the beginning of this year--points to the sharp increase in cyberattacks on U.S. companies over the past few years.
Parting shot: Bearded hipsters, or ISIS recruits? This was the questioned posed to the Swedish police officers called to investigate after a nervous passerby saw 30 bearded men gathering in a field with a black flag. Turns out that the men were not ISIS followers, but rather members of what Foreign Policy identifies as an “international beard club.” Surely, a forgivable error.
ICYMI: This Weekend, on Lawfare
Ben argued that, at this point, the most important thing the United States can and should do in Syria is protect civilians.
Wells shared the news that federal employees can now contribute to Lawfare through the 2015 Combined Federal Campaign.
Zack Bluestone explained what effects the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will likely have on China and updated us on the state of affairs in the South and East China Seas.
Timothy Edgar considered whether reforms to the NSA’s PRISM program would be sufficient to answer the European privacy concerns raised in the recent Schrems decision.
Cody posted the Lawfare Podcast, featuring an interview with the Brookings Institution’s Chief Information Officer Helen Mohrmann on her experiences maintaining Brookings’ cybersecurity.
In the Foreign Policy Essay, Jacob Olidort examined the rise of Egyptian Salafis in the wake of a government crackdown on the rival Muslim Brotherhood.
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