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"It's necessary to strengthen the mission... and concentrate preparations for fighting a war. We need to take all complex situations into consideration and make emergency plans accordingly. We have to step up combat readiness exercises, joint exercises and confrontational exercises to enhance servicemen's capabilities and preparation for war."One of the key responsibilities of the Southern Theater Command is protecting China's interests in the South China Sea, where Beijing claims sovereignty over a number of islands. The sea is of strategic importance to Chinese trade. The US rejects the territorial claims and has been sending so-called Freedom of Navigation missions through the waters and airspace, which Beijing considers its own, as a gesture of defiance.

"In view of Israel's continued denial of the signed agreements, the Palestinian Central Council... decided to suspend the commitments of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority toward the agreements with the occupying power [Israel] until Israel recognized the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital," the PCC said in a press release.According to the statement, the PCC also decided to stop security and economic coordination with Israel "on the basis that the transitional phase, including the Paris agreement, no longer exists."
"Militants of illegal armed groups do not abandon their attempts to destabilize the situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone. The Russian center for reconciliation received information from residents of Aleppo that they [militants] are preparing another provocation with the use of toxic agents to accuse the government forces of using chemical weapons against the local population," Lt. Gen. Vladimir Savchenko said as quoted by Russia's Defense Ministry. "Members of the White Helmets organization are carrying out staged filming with participation of civilians unknown to local resident."Savchenko specified that, according to information received by the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation, militants planned to provoke the Syrian Armed Forces to open return fire, adding that their plan also included the staging, in a territory controlled by illegal armed units, of an artillery shelling with projectiles containing toxic agents allegedly conducted by Syria's military.

Firstly, they did not die immediately, or thereabouts, which is what you would expect to have happened had they been contaminated by coming into contact with what was said to be a nerve agent of "high purity".In other words, in order to accept the door handle explanation, you need to ignore every one of these extremely improbable things. If it were someone on a website suggesting it, rather than The Metropolitan Police, you all know what they would be called and what they would be assumed to be wearing on their heads, don't you?
Secondly, they were fine for hours afterwards, so much so that they were able to drive to town, feed ducks, go for a meal, and then have a drink.
Thirdly, eye witness accounts of the couple on the bench suggest that they became seriously ill pretty much simultaneously. Certainly, there were no reports of one of the pair calling for help, or contacting the emergency services, which is what you would expect to have happened in the event of one becoming ill before the other.
Fourthly, during the duck feed, which took place just after the Skripals parked their car in Sainsbury's car park, and prior to their visit to Zizzis, Mr Skripal handed bread to some local boys, one of whom apparently ate a piece. I cannot think of a plausible explanation why this boy did not become ill if, as claimed, Mr Skripal's hands were contaminated at that time with a "military grade nerve agent".
Fifthly, either Mr Skripal or his daughter must have touched the parking machine at Sainsbury's car park, which was then touched by literally hundreds of people over the following days. Yet not one of these people were contaminated.
Sixthly, neither the door handle at Zizzis nor the door handle at The Mill were contaminated, despite the fact that either Mr Skripal or Yulia, or perhaps both, would have handled them when going into those venues.

Israel may be small, but so was Britain when it controlled India. Israel doesn't need to control everything in the US, just the important things: AIPAC (with the help of Christian Zionists) controls Middle East policy and keeps aid money flowing by controlling all branches of government; the label "anti-Semite" is used as a weapon; media is kept from any meaningful criticism of Israel; and "exceptionalism" allows the Jewish State to waive rules that every other country on the planet must obey.Robert Fisk: 'There is no difference between the American and Israeli governments'
Comment: US-Russian relations are at their lowest in decades and we may suspect the depth and breadth of the mechanics that have been set in motion to disengage this administration. If Republicans have a winning hand, the author's assumptions of the way forward might be realistic. If not, there is no way to predict the level of harm that will be done.