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June 2019

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Turkey’s “Second Invasion” of Cyprus: Illegal Drilling in Eastern Mediterranean by Uzay Bulut

By on June 6th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14256/cyprus-turkey-illegal-drilling

“Although Turkey has been violating Cyprus’s sovereignty since 1974, the current highly volatile internal political and economic situation in Turkey has made the Turkish government get even more aggressive in the eastern Mediterranean…. For Mr. Erdogan’s plans to succeed, Cyprus needs to be eliminated.” — Harris Samaras, an expert on the Cypriot EEZ and chairman of the international investment banking firm Pytheas.

“Mr. Erdogan is aware that it will be impossible for Turkey to achieve its goals of regional hegemony if US interests in particular, but also French ones, develop a firm foothold in Cyprus. This is his biggest fear.” — Harris Samaras.

“The East Med Pipeline, then — which has been started with the blessing of the US — is of the utmost importance. At the last trilateral meeting of Israel, Cyprus and Greece, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was present and supported the project. If it goes ahead, it will be a major slap in the face for Turkey’s energy plans.” — Harris Samaras.

“Concrete steps should be taken to stop Turkish violations against Cyprus’s EEZ. Sanctions should be imposed at the level of the European Council to the persons and companies responsible for the drilling. All pre-accession funds to Turkey should be blocked, and Turkish access to loans by the European Investment Bank should be eliminated. Additional options, if Turkey escalates the situation further, are imposing sanctions on Turkey’s banking sector and freezing the accession process altogether. The US also needs to lift the irrational arms embargo it imposed on the Republic of Cyprus in 1987, and help it to rearm and modernize its ability to defend itself, while keeping the UN peace keeping mission (UNFICYP) intact.” — Theodoros Tsakiris, assistant professor of energy policy and geopolitics at the University of Nicosia.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Report: Iran planning to arm Palestinians in Judea and Samaria by Neta Bar

By on June 6th, 2019

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/06/report-iran-planning-to-arm-palestinians-in-judea-and-samaria/

Former Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi “blesses” process of supplying the Palestinians with upgraded weapons, says Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei predicts “Zionist regime will disappear.”

Iran is working to arm the various terrorist organizations active in Judea and Samaria with the aim of sparking fresh hostilities against Israel, recent remarks by senior officials in Tehran reveal.

A report published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on Wednesday exposed a series of comments from officials showing that the Iranian regime has not abandoned its hopes of instigating a bloody uprising in Judea and Samaria.

Former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, who now serves as security adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, spoke on Quds Day – marked last Friday – and said that support for the Palestinians was a fundamental principle of the Islamic Revolution, and would continue until the “Zionist regime” was eliminated.

Safavi praised the upgraded weapons the Palestinians have been using and stressed that the “blessed” process of procuring advanced weaponry was still underway. Safavi said that in contrast to the past, when Palestinians had waged war against Israel using rocks and sticks; they were now supplied with an arsenal of rockets that would allow them to respond to “any Israeli attack.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

In Search for Innovation, EU Corporations Turn Their Eyes to Tel Aviv by Lilach Baumer

By on June 6th, 2019

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https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/06/05/in-search-for-innovation-eu-c
Silicon Valley may hold the global crown when it comes to attracting European corporations looking to tap innovative new technologies, but Tel Aviv is closing the gap, and fast.

Forty-one large European corporations currently operate an innovation outpost in Israel, almost half of which have set up shop in the past three years, according to a new report published Monday by Mind the Bridge, a Silicon Valley-based innovation advisory firm. In comparison, the number of large European corporations that operate an innovation hub in Silicon Valley currently stands at 60.

The report’s authors divided international presence in Israel into four categories: the corporate innovation antenna — a small scouting team that looks for technologies on a case-by-case basis; the corporate innovation lab — an incubator-like entity that recruits out-of-house research and development; the research and development center — an established outpost numbering at least 50 local employees, which draws on both local startups and local human talent; and a corporate venture capital (CVC) outpost — a local venture fund presence set up by an international corporation.

In terms of presence in Israel, the four top countries are Germany, with 13 corporations, among them Bosch, Daimler AG, Volkswagen, Bayer, and Merck; France, with 10, including the Renault Group and insurance company AXA; the UK, with seven, including ARM and Barclays; and Switzerland, with four — Novartis, Lonza, Nestle, and Syngenta.

Overall, of the industry sectors represented among these corporations, the most popular are automotive and engineering and electronics, with life sciences a close third. Some corporations operate multiple outposts, such as Merck, which has one R&D center spread over four facilities, a lab, and two corporate venture capital (CVC) offices, according to the report.

In comparison to Silicon Valley, the authors conclude, Israeli outposts tend to be fewer in number but larger in scope — with R&D centers dominating thanks to Israel offering faster results and requiring smaller teams “due to the greatly concentrated and networked market, and the distinctive execution pace of local teams.” In Silicon Valley, only 19 percent of the outposts are R&D centers, compared to 60 percent in Israel, while CVCs amount to 30 percent, compared to 12 percent in Israel.

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POLITICS, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Mexican Meddling in Our Elections Trump’s tariffs are necessary, but too nice for Mexico’s colonial regime. Lloyd Billingsley

By on June 6th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273922/mexican-meddling-our-elections-lloyd-billingsley

“Social problems are not solved with duties or coercive measures,” and “the Statue of Liberty is not an empty symbol.”

That was Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after President Trump, no longer willing to wait on a hostile, do-nothing Congress, announced a 5 percent tariff on all Mexican goods. The tariffs would escalate in proportion to the way Mexico helps solve the border crisis, with a 25 percent rate targeted for October 1.

AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, blasted Trump for “turning the United States, overnight, from a country of brotherly love for immigrants from around the world, to a bolted space, where there’s stigmatizing, mistreatment, abuse, persecution, and a denial of the right to justice to those who seek — with sacrifice and hard work — to live free from misery.”

This reflected the belief of “socialist messiah” AMLO that all Mexicans have a “right” to live in the United States, which has the obligation to solve Mexico’s problems forever. AMLO quickly dispatched to Washington his foreign relations boss Marcelo Ebrard, a former Mexico City mayor who has been busy proclaiming Mexico “a great neighbor” of the USA.

Before that, as Ebrard told Francisco Goldman of the New Yorker, he became “committed to direct political action” to get Hillary Clinton elected in 2016. Ebrard had previously worked with Voto Latino and other groups in California, Arizona, Florida and elsewhere. The prospect of Trump, whom Ebrard compared to Adolph Hitler, prompted the Mexican’s work for the campaign of Hillary Clinton who is on record that “one-half of undocumented workers pay federal income taxes.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israeli Navy Deploys Drone Boat To Hunt Submarines During War Exercise by Tyler Durden

By on June 6th, 2019

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-05/israeli-navy-deploys-drone-boat-hunt-submarines-during-war-exercise

Seagull, Elbit Systems’ groundbreaking autonomous vessel recently participated in an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) exercise conducted by the Hellenic and Israeli Navy.

The multi-mission drone ship deployed dipping sonar sensors initially designed to be carried by helicopters.

“The Seagulls’ performance in the exercise demonstrated that operating a dipping sonar onboard such a vessel significantly increases the operational working time while substantially enhancing detection capabilities and the effectiveness of Anti-Submarine Warfare,” said Elbit.

Three months before the exercise, the Israeli Navy completed a Sea Acceptance Test (SAT) for the dipping sonar (otherwise known as the Helicopter Long-Range Active Sonar (HELRAS)) that was successfully converted from operations on a helicopter to an autonomous boat.The HELRAS was developed in the 1970s by FIAR and British Aerospace to detect submarines. The sensor was used throughout the Cold War for detection of Russian submarines.

The Seagull team includes three operators, with two remotely managing the mission and the third monitoring the autonomous navigation.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Recycling: America’s False Religion J. Frank Bullitt

By on June 6th, 2019

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/06/05/recycling-americas-false-religion/

Before climate change became a belief system in which humans are expected to perform penance for their sins against Gaia, recycling was the religion of many in the modern world. Those who didn’t reduce, reuse, and recycle were, and still are, considered heretics.

Nearly a quarter century ago, John Tierney wrote in the New York Times Magazine that “Recycling Is Garbage.” In an article that produced the greatest volume of hate mail in the magazine’s history, Tierney said that rather than recycling, “the simplest and cheapest option is usually to bury garbage in an environmentally safe landfill.” With the exception of a few items — aluminum cans, cardboard, office paper — the cost of the recycling equipment plus the process itself exceeded the value of the products created by recycling.

Though recycling rarely makes economic sense and often burns up more fresh resources than would have been used in making new items, Americans recycled. And recycled. And recycle still.

Are we better off for it? It can easily be argued we are worse off. Our recycling obsessions have instigated a war on plastic that’s inconvenienced consumers and cost them billions. Recycling has also helped create an environmental mess. Roughly 90 percent of all plastic found in the oceans, says the Hemholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, is carried there by “the top 10 rivers with the highest loads” of plastic debris. Eight of those rivers are in Asia, two are in Africa. None are in the U.S.

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HISTORY Comments turned off

The Lessons and Legacy of D-Day By Perry Gershon

By on June 6th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/06/the_lessons_and_legacy_of_dday.html

This week, we will celebrate the daring, courage and sacrifice of 73,000 young Americans who hit the beaches of Normandy, Omaha and Utah — on June 6, 1944, 75 years ago.  Those who lived to come home are now in their 90s.  While we have this extraordinary generation till among us, this is the year, month, and day to reach out and thank them.  It is also a moment to think about what the day means for us.

The assault, named “Operation Overlord,” was epic – enormous in size, significance, and tragic cost.  On the beaches of Normandy France, in a moment of profound resolve, faith, military commitment, and patriotism, which boils down to love of country, town, family, and freedom – these boys from across America risked all for us. 

Had they not done so, the freedoms and prosperity we take as a birthright daily would not be ours; if by some stretch America had survived and endured at all, we would be an island in an ocean of unthinkable darkness. 

These boys knew that the fight was all or nothing, win or freedom perishes, prevail against the evil that had taken Europe, or allow something to stand that could not.  So they gave it their all. 

That invasion – which the Nazis thought they could halt on the beach – is what made freeing Europe possible.  But it did not come without enormous human cost – both in those lost on that day and in the memories and horrors experienced, which lasted a lifetime for those who were there.

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