Bahrain and Israel have signed a joint communique to formalise ties during a visit by an Israeli and US delegation to Manama to broaden cooperation that Washington has promoted as an anti-Iran bulwark and potential economic boom.
Bahrain followed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in agreeing last month to normalise ties with Israel in US-brokered deals, stunning Palestinians who had demanded statehood before any such regional rapprochement.
The UAE and Bahrain became the third and fourth Arab states to agree to normalise ties with Israel, following Egypt's peace deal with Israel in 1979 and a 1994 pact with Jordan.
For the US allies, it is a chance to close ranks on Iran more overtly.
The Israeli delegation, which flew on an El Al Israel Airlines charter flight from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, was accompanied by US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.
A teacher beheaded on a street near Paris on Friday afternoon has been named as Samuel Paty by French Education MinisterJean-Michel Blanquer.
The suspected killer, who was armed with a knife and a plastic pellet gun, was later shot dead by officers in a nearby town, police said.
French authorities have launched an anti-terror investigation.
President Emmanuel Macron called it an "assassination" and an "Islamist terrorist attack".
Here's what we know about the attack so far:
Who was the victim?
Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher, was decapitated near the school in the commune of Conflans Saint-Honorine, northwest of the French capital, at around 5 pm local time.
Police told the AFP news agency that he had hosted a class discussion with secondary school students about cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
French police have detained four people, including a minor, in connection with the brutal slaying of a schoolteacher in Conflans-Saint-Honorine near Paris, which was described by President Emmanuel Macron as Islamist terrorism.
Five more people were taken into custody after the raid, according to unconfirmed French media reports. Among them is the suspect's father and several people who were involved in a row with the victim, a school teacher, which allegedly triggered the crime.
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted by Islamists for publishing cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, has called for a public rally in the wake of what is seen as a copycat killing of a schoolteacher.
The publication, known for its no-holds-barred approach to satirical cartoons, has called on the French people to show up on Sunday in the iconic Paris Place de la Republique square. The protest is being organized in league with the French teachers' union and freedom groups, Charlie Hebdo said.
UPDATE (10/19): Abdoulakh Anzorov reportedly tweeted an image of Mr. Paty's head after the murder. Some of Paty's students may have seen the image, which included this message: "From Abdullah, the servant of Allah, to Macron, the leader of the infidels, I executed one of your hell dogs who dared to belittle Muhammad." Paty had been doxxed online after he showed the image of a naked Mohammed cartoon. Any angry father whose daughter was in the class called on Muslims to take action against the teacher. After that, Paty's personal information showed up online.
Russian authorities say they have no powers to open up their own investigation into Anzorov, but will keep in touch with French officials. They added that he had been radicalized in France (he lived there since he was six), so there's not much they can do.
Meanwhile France intends to strengthen their control over Islamist group funding. And French police have made a number of arrests in operations against Islamist radicals:
The authorities have launched more than 80 probes into the spread of hate online, [the interior minister] said.
Never has the government mobilized so many resources to fight Islamism on social media.
Darmanin said that around 50 Muslim groups will be inspected by the authorities this week. "Several of them, as per my proposal according to the president's request, will be dissolved by the Council of Ministers."
One of the groups in the crosshairs is the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), a human rights NGO chronicling attacks on Muslims, according to its website. Darmanin linked the group to the parent who had "launched a 'fatwa' against the teacher."
A certain number of elements allow us to believe that [this group] is an enemy of the Republic.
The minister said he will also ask for another Muslim NGO, BarakaCity, to be dissolved. Its founder, Idriss Sihamedi, was detained last week following an online harassment complaint by a media columnist.
...
Journalist Zineb El Rhazoui accused the CCIF of participating in a "harassment campaign" against the slain teacher, and similar allegations were made by lawmaker Aurore Berge. The CCIF rejected these allegations as "false," denying any ties to the case.
BarakaCity head Sihamedi, meanwhile, said that the dissolution of the group cannot happen "in the snap of a finger," and would be "illegal," because Darmanin is "not a king in an absolute monarchy."
UPDATE (10/20): The French mosque responsible for sharing a video online thought to have provoked the murder (though it didn't include Paty's name or any calls for violence) expressed regret for doing so. But the French interior ministry has now demanded the mosque be closed down for six months.
The father who initially called for action to be taken against the teacher online allegedly issued a fatwa against the teacher, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Before the murder, he was in contact with Anzorov, the young Chechen who ended up beheading Paty:
The news contradicted earlier reports claiming the killer had no contact with, or knowledge of, Paty or the school where he taught - despite allegedly having asked specifically for the 47-year-old history and geography teacher's whereabouts upon arriving at the school on Friday. ...
The father and several of his relatives have since been arrested in a crackdown on "Islamic terrorism" following Paty's killing, as the French government acknowledged it had not done enough to police extremist organizations. Five students have also reportedly been arrested for allegedly helping Anzorov identify Paty in exchange for money.
France's L'Express magazine reprinted Mohammed cartoons, some of which were reportedly those shown by Paty in class.
Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach has claimed a second laptop belonging to Hunter Biden's business contacts in the country has been seized by law enforcement there
A Ukrainian lawmaker has claimed a second laptop belonging to Hunter Biden's business contacts in the country has been seized by law enforcement there.
Andrii Derkach posted to Facebook on Friday to say there is a 'second laptop' involving evidence of corruption and connected to the Bidens, The Daily Beast reports.
Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, has said foreign sources did not provide the Hunter Biden emails first reported last week. He says a laptop containing the correspondence and intimate photos was simply abandoned in a Delaware repair shop and the shop owner reached out to Giuliani's lawyer.
Derkach is one of Giuliani's principal contacts and was mentioned in an August intelligence assessment that described a concerted Russian effort to disparage Biden. A Treasury Department sanction announcement from last month characterized Derkach as an 'active Russian agent for over a decade.'
Trump wrote to Assad in March proposing 'direct dialogue' over the release of one of the US citizens, reports WSJ
In a dramatic turn of events, it was revealed that the United States sent Kash Patel, deputy assistant to President Trump and the top White House counterterrorism official, to talk to the Syrian government regarding the release of two Americans being held by the Syrians. It is not known currently with whom Patel met. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the story.
The two prisoners are Austin Tice and Syrian-American Majd Kamalmaz. There are also four other Americans believed to be held by Syria.
Tice is a former Marine officer and freelance journalist who was kidnapped in 2012 while covering the Syrian Civil War. Majd Kamalmaz is a psychotherapist who was treating refugees in the region. In February 2017, he had traveled to visit an elderly family member in Damascus. A day after arriving, Kamalmaz was stopped at a Syrian Government checkpoint in Mezzeh, a suburb of Damascus, and has not been seen or heard from since that day.
As countries are furiously stocking food in anticipation of global food shortages, 'experts' are now calling COVID-19 a Syndemic "COVID-20," requiring a 'social vaccine' comprising Universal Basic Income & nutrition, free education, huge dietary changes. The technocrats will stop at nothing, including engineered food shortages, to push their Great Reset into global communism and transhumanism. Christian breaks it down.
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates Monday urging the group to release a new set of topics ahead of Thursday's third and final debate and to refrain from adding any additional rule changes.
NBC News' Kristin Welker, the third debate's moderator, released her selected topics for the third debate on Friday, which included national security, fighting COVID-19, race in America, leadership, American families, climate change and leadership.
The Trump campaign's letter reads, that Welker's selected topics "are serious and worthy of discussion, but only a few of them even touch on foreign policy," as is typical of the third presidential debate.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the latest Democrat to cast doubt on a potential Covid-19 vaccine, saying he is "not that confident" in the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
In a Monday morning interview with ABC's 'Good Morning America', Cuomo claimed the CDC and FDA "don't have any credibility" while President Donald Trump is in office and the public should be "very skeptical" of any vaccine pushed out.
"I'm not that confident, but my opinion doesn't matter. I don't believe the American people are that confident," the governor said. "I think it's going to be a very skeptical American public about taking the vaccine, and they should be."
When a vaccine does become available, Cuomo says states will need independent doctors to test it on their own to ensure it's "safe," which is what he plans to do in New York.
Ireland's deputy PM Leo Varadkar, who was voted out of office as PM in February, but who returned to government through a coalition of the losing Establishment parties, grins under his muzzle
Ireland will move to the highest level of Covid-19 restrictions under the Government's five-tier living with Covid roadmap.
Cabinet ministers today agreed to place the country under Level 5 restrictions from midnight on Wednesday for six weeks in a bid to combat the rise in cases of the virus.
The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting at Government Buildings in Dublin this evening. The restrictions will last until December 1.
Level 5 is the most stringent under the Irish system and asks citizens to 'stay at home, except to exercise within 5 kilometres of your home.'
Public gatherings, except for small numbers at funerals and weddings, are banned and only essential shops are allowed to stay open.
Ireland has recorded a total of 49,962 cases, with another 1,283 infections added to that tally in the last 24 hours.
However, fatalities remain low with just three deaths recorded on Sunday, adding to a total of 1,852.
Comment: Three 'Covid deaths'. Suicides and deaths of despair related to the lockdowns are way up. But the government isn't counting those of course.
President Trump said the US would be in the throes of a "massive depression" if he had "totally" heeded advice from scientists on coronavirus-related lockdown measures.
Trump made the economic prediction at his Sunday rally in Carson City, Nevada, adding that the country would endure another Great Depression if Joe Biden is elected president.
A hacker group from North Korea has been attacking Russian military and industrial organizations by sending fraudulent emails, according to cybersecurity experts, who believe that Pyongyang is beginning to cast its net wider.
This may come as a surprise to some, as Russia is one of very few countries with no hostility towards Pyongyang, which has very few allies on the world stage.
Speaking to Moscow daily Kommersant, experts explained that hacker group Kimsuky had attempted to collect confidential information from aerospace and defense companies through phishing attacks.
Comment: This is particularly interesting because Russia, unlike America, isn't known for accusing other countries of crimes unless there's a valid reason; are the attacks really coming from North Korean command, and, if so, why would they do something that would clearly damage their good relations?
There's a world wide revolution going on. It goes beyond Mississippi, it goes beyond Alabama, it goes beyond Harlem. What is it revolting against? The power structure. The American power structure? No. The French power structure? No. The English power structure? No. Then what power structure? An international, Western power structure.
- Malcolm X
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please don't eat the daisies oh, i forgot to mention. our up-to-date, fully internet informed (and monitored), country neighbor also sprays his...
Comment: Police also apprehended those believed to be connected to the killer: Charlie Hebdo magazine is organizing a rally in response to the gruesome murder: UPDATE (10/19): Abdoulakh Anzorov reportedly tweeted an image of Mr. Paty's head after the murder. Some of Paty's students may have seen the image, which included this message: "From Abdullah, the servant of Allah, to Macron, the leader of the infidels, I executed one of your hell dogs who dared to belittle Muhammad." Paty had been doxxed online after he showed the image of a naked Mohammed cartoon. Any angry father whose daughter was in the class called on Muslims to take action against the teacher. After that, Paty's personal information showed up online.
Russian authorities say they have no powers to open up their own investigation into Anzorov, but will keep in touch with French officials. They added that he had been radicalized in France (he lived there since he was six), so there's not much they can do.
Meanwhile France intends to strengthen their control over Islamist group funding. And French police have made a number of arrests in operations against Islamist radicals: UPDATE (10/20): The French mosque responsible for sharing a video online thought to have provoked the murder (though it didn't include Paty's name or any calls for violence) expressed regret for doing so. But the French interior ministry has now demanded the mosque be closed down for six months.
The father who initially called for action to be taken against the teacher online allegedly issued a fatwa against the teacher, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Before the murder, he was in contact with Anzorov, the young Chechen who ended up beheading Paty: France's L'Express magazine reprinted Mohammed cartoons, some of which were reportedly those shown by Paty in class.