A London barrister named Michael Mansfield (lead image, left) and solicitor Irene Nembhard (top right) have moved one step closer to claiming a multi-million pound payment from the British Government on their allegation that the British intelligence and security services had been negligent in protecting Dawn Sturgess from a Russian state assassination attack in 2018. The allegation was dismissed in a coroner's court ruling last December. But this will now be reviewed by a High Court judge in a hearing planned to start in July.

The calculation of the lawyers is that the evidence of the Novichok nerve agent, of the Russian assassination plot against Sergei and Yulia Skripal (top left and centre), and of the cause of death of Sturgess is so secret, and also so false, the British Government will prefer to pay the lawyers their bounty, rather than let a High Court judge hear the evidence in open court and expose the truth.

There has been no court test to date of the British government's narrative of what happened to the Skripals in Salisbury town centre on March 4, 2018; and then to Sturgess at a flat in nearby Amesbury on June 30, 2018; Sturgess died in Salisbury Hospital on July 8, allegedly of the same Novichok poisoning from which the Skripals have recovered. The inquest into the cause of her death has been repeatedly postponed and is unlikely to be held.

The Skripals are being held incommunicado: Yulia Skripal has not been heard from since July 24, 2018; Sergei Skripal not since June 26, 2019. London lawyers now say the Skripals may be called as witnesses to testify in the High Court.

"We were Hezbollah trainers. It is an organisation that learns quickly. The Hezbollah we met at the beginning (1982) is different from the one we left behind in 2000". This is what the former Chief of Staff and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabi Ashkenazi, said twenty years after the Israeli unconditional withdrawal from Lebanon.

"For the first time we met a non-conventional army, but also an ideological organisation with deep faith: and this faith triumphed over us. We were more powerful, more technologically advanced and better armed but not possessing the fighting spirit ...They were stronger than us". This is what Brigadier General Effi Eitam, Commander of the 91^st Division in counter-guerrilla operation in south Lebanon said.

Alon Ben-David, senior defence correspondent for Israel's Channel 13, specialised in defence and military issues, said: "Hezbollah stood up and defeated the powerful Israeli Army".

Stay-at-home orders intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus could end up causing "irreparable damage" if imposed for too long, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNBC on Friday.

"I don't want people to think that any of us feel that staying locked down for a prolonged period of time is the way to go," Fauci said during an interview with CNBC's Meg Tirrell on "Halftime Report."

He said the U.S. had to institute severe measures because Covid-19 cases were exploding then. "But now is the time, depending upon where you are and what your situation is, to begin to seriously look at reopening the economy, reopening the country to try to get back to some degree of normal."

Singapore, SANA-International Business Times website, of Singapore edition, revealed in a report posted yesterday that the fires which erupted in the wheat fields in Syrian al-Jazeera region were lately carried out by US occupation forces.

An American aircraft has reportedly dropped thermal balloons over agricultural lands in Syria's northeastern province of Hasakah, setting fire to wheat crops in the area.

The report titled "Confirmed Trump Ordered Syria's Wheat Crop Burning During Pandemic" said that the US forces were carrying out the orders of US President Donald Trump.

Russia will do everything in its power to salvage the Open Skies Treaty (OST) after the US signaled its intention to withdraw from one of the few remaining arms-control pillars, Moscow said, rejecting claims it violated the pact.

"If the US exits the Treaty, a blow will be dealt to a rather fragile balance of interests of its parties. As a result, not only the OST will suffer, but also the European security framework as a whole," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, after US President Donald Trump announced he would be withdrawing from the agreement that allows reconnaissance planes to overfly the territory of its signatories.

In force since 2002, the treaty currently involves 35 states, including Russia and the US, and is considered to be one of the cornerstones of the global arms control mechanism, aimed at reducing the possibility of a military conflict breaking out due to the lack of transparency.

The ministry said that Russia is poised to try to resuscitate the treaty through negotiations with the US, noting that such talks should also address Russia's own concerns over Washington not holding up its end of the bargain.

"Russia is doing everything possible to keep the treaty intact and believes it's necessary to reconcile the existing differences through negotiations within The Open Skies Consultative Commission, taking into account concerns expressed by all parties, including problems with the US and their allies' implementation of the treaty."

Announcing the US' intention to pull out of the agreement, Trump pointed a finger at Russia, accusing it of failing to abide by its provisions - an allegation which Moscow has categorically denied.

Events in Libya have escalated rapidly in recent days, accompanied by an information and propaganda war between the opposing sides.

A written statement published on 21 May by Saqr Al-Jaroushi, commander of the Air Force of the Libyan National Army (LNA), hints at a dangerous escalation of the situation in the African country, stating that

"the largest aerial campaign in Libya's history is about to begin. All Turkish positions and interests in all (Libyan) cities are now legitimate targets for LNA planes, and as such the civilian population is urged to stay away from them."

Turkish media had several days earlier launched a mass information campaign in support of Operation Peace Storm in Libya, reporting how the Libyan army had dealt a "crushing blow to Marshal Khalifa Haftar's military units" around Tripoli, Al-Watiya and Abu Grein, and on the destruction of LNA military equipment. In demonstration of these victories, GNA supporters triumphantly paraded a captured Russian-made Pantsir C1E, an air defense missile system, around the Libyan capital as a trophy.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the investigation of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, the bureau said Friday.

The after-action review will examine whether any current employees engaged in misconduct during the course of the investigation and evaluate whether any improvements in FBI policies and procedures need to be made.

In announcing the review, the FBI, a frequent target of President Donald Trump's wrath, is stepping into a case that has become a rallying cry for Trump supporters — and doing so right as the Justice Department pushes back against criticism that its recent decision to dismiss the prosecution was a politically motivated effort to do Trump's bidding.

The announcement adds to the internal scrutiny over one of special counsel Robert Mueller's signature prosecutions during his investigation into ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. It underscores how a case that was seemingly resolved by Flynn's 2017 guilty plea has instead given way to a protracted, politically charged debate about FBI and Justice Department tactics during that investigation and the Russia probe more broadly.

US officials have debated whether to carry out the first US nuclear tests in 28 years as a way to pressure Russia and China into make a trilateral arms control deal, according congressional aides and former officials.

They said the discussion took place at a "deputies meeting" of senior national security officials at the White House on 15 May, but that the proposal was shelved for the time being. "There are still some professionals in the room who told them this is a terrible idea, thank God," a congressional aide said.

The discussion was first reported on Friday night by the Washington Post, which cited a senior administration official as saying that a demonstration to Moscow and Beijing that the United States could carry out a "rapid test" could be a useful bargaining counter in the achieving the administration's priority on arms control - a trilateral deal with Russia and China.

The report also quoted a senior administration official as saying the proposal was "very much an ongoing conversation".

The hunt for the world's first coronavirus vaccine is taking place with numerous companies and countries seeking to solve the COVID-19 pandemic. At the forefront, we find one American company that has been given a clear advantage in the process.

On May 15, 2020, Donald Trump announced this:

"Today I want to update you on the next stage of this momentous medical initiative. It's called Operation Warp Speed. That means big and it means fast. A massive scientific, industrial, and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project. You really could say that nobody has seen anything like we're doing, whether it's ventilators or testing. Nobody has seen anything like we're doing now, within our country, since the Second World War. Incredible.

"Its objective is to finish developing and then to manufacture and distribute a proven coronavirus vaccine as fast as possible. Again, we'd love to see if we could do it prior to the end of the year. We think we're going to have some very good results coming out very quickly. In addition, it will continue accelerating the development of diagnostics and breakthrough therapies....

"To date, Operation Warp Speed has brought together all of the experts across the federal government from places like the NIH, CDC, FDA, and many other agencies. This historic partnership will now bring together the full resources of the Department of Health and Human Services with the Department of Defense. And we know what that means. That means the full power and strength of military — the military. And that — really, talking about the logistics — if we get it, when we get it. That means the logistics, getting it out, so that everybody can take it.

"And today, we're proud to announce the addition of two of the most highly respected and skilled professionals in our country — worldwide respected. Operation Warp Speed's chief scientist will be Dr. Moncef Slaoui, a world-renowned immunologist who helped create 14 new vaccines — that's a lot of our new vaccines — in 10 years, during his time in the private sector. One of the most respected men in the world in the production and, really, on the formulation of vaccines." (my bolds)

Notice "...so that EVERYONE can take it". That sounds pretty non-optional to me.

Turkey has been violating the UN embargo by sending arms and militants from Syria to Libya, a spokesman for Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) claimed as he showed videos that allegedly proved Ankara's violations.

Turkey "continues its aggression against our country" by supporting the rivaling Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), Major General Ahmed al-Mesmari, the LNA's official spokesman, said during a press-conference.

Once prosperous, Libya remains divided since 2011 when NATO led a bombing campaign to overthrow the country's longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. The fighting between the LNA and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj's GNA intensified last year, with international efforts to bring peace to the country, including those by Russia, so far being in vain. Haftar's forces have been advancing on Tripoli for months, but the tide has changed recently, with the UN-recognized GNA now being on a counteroffensive.

Turkey's interference is to blame for the failure of all initiatives aimed at settling the crisis, al-Mesmari insisted. "Until this hostile force is removed from the Libyan land, the radical elements will keep sowing discord and bloodshed."

Ankara has been violating the UN arms embargo and supplying the GNA with hundreds of armored vehicles, artillery pieces, UAVs, heavy machine guns, other offensive weapons and loads of ammunition, he claimed.