An AIPAC affiliate paid $60,000 during its campaign to thwart the Iran nuclear deal to a group that engages in anti-Muslim extremism.

Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, which was launched in the summer of 2015 to rally opposition to the Iran deal, paid the money to the Center for Security Policy, according to a report Wednesday by LobeLog, a Middle East policy news and analysis site.

The corporate foundations of Verizon, Pfizer, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, American Express and JPMorgan Chase have collectively given over $25,000 to U.S. nonprofits that send money to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to tax records from 2001 to 2016 reviewed by In These Times.

A large network of U.S. nonprofits raises millions of dollars annually to send to Israeli settlements, which are built on Palestinian land and are considered illegal under international law. Some Israeli settlers violently harass Palestinians and burn down their crops. Israeli settlers have also killed Palestinians.

Tax records reviewed by In These Times show that Israeli settlements have a surprising source of funds: the foundations of some of the most well-known U.S. corporations.

Mr Brok, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, insisted there were “very different views” across the EU over Theresa May's request to extend the bloc’s Article 50 exit clause. Any Brexit delay will require a unanimous decision by all leaders at the European Council summit on Thursday afternoon. Mr Brok has begged for a short delay until May 23 to avoid new British MEPs having to be elected to the European Parliament.

Police have named 37-year-old Turkish born Gökman Tanis as their chief suspect in the shooting and urged members of the public to contact them with information on his whereabouts.

They have warned people not to approach him.

The gunman opened fire at around 10.45am local time.

A woman who was sitting in a tram told local broadcaster NRC a man got put of his seat and started shooting at other passengers.

The head of Army Materiel Command said recently that he is putting a high priority on munitions readiness to make sure Army units are prepared for the next war.

"This means having the right munitions – small-caliber to precision munitions – where we need them at the right time and the right place," Gen. Gus Perna told an audience at a March 14 Association of the United States Army event. "That means we must first ensure that the capability we have here in [the U.S.] can receive, store and issue munitions in a timely, effective manner."

Perna's comments come at a time when the Army continues to replenish its ammunition stocks as it prepares to face an equally formidable foe such as Russia or China on the battlefield.

The U.S. Air Force is hoping to grow its total force by 4,400 airmen, add a new fighter to its inventory, and pump more money into weapon sustainment and ongoing research programs, such as the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber project, according to the service's fiscal 2020 budget request.

As anticipated, the Air Force will officially ask to fund eight brand-new F-15EX fourth-plus generation fighters at a cost of $1.05 billion to gradually begin replacing its older F-15C/D Eagle fleet, the budget documents reveal. Service officials recently disclosed the Air Force needs to boost its fighter inventory, but it had not expected to do so with an F-15X variant.

While most countries across the world continue to eschew virtually all food creations originating from the lab rather than the farmstead (especially in Europe, where nearly 20 countries banned GMOs in 2015), the United States is charging full-steam ahead toward a completely new type of food system.

This emerging system places scientists at the forefront of food production, not farmers.

In many cases, lab-made food companies start with admirable goals of ending or minimizing animal suffering, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and other similar missions.

But critics wonder why these novel foods are being rushed to market without long term safety testing at a time when increasing amounts of synthetic foods are being allowed into the U.S. supply.

Why does this matter?

Because the government is using this issue to experiment with suspending the First Amendment.

They have succeeded in getting Facebook, Google and Amazon to censor SCIENTIFIC information.

Coming later this week…we found a direct connection between the vaccine industry and the recent Wired article smearing the work of legitimate autism researchers.

Essential viewing – and sharing.

US General on #Maduro refusing to leave Venezuela: “He needs to understand that a bullet to the forehead may be his way out of #Venezuela. and we have that capability”

Turns out that wealthy people including actresses, actors and business folks have been involved in a scandal that includes all kinds of crazy allegations to get their children into prestigious institutions.

But it looks like the president’s son-in-law, holder of Ivanka’s hand and a security clearance he didn’t earn, was ahead of the curve. Author Daniel Golden put Jared Kushner’s game on front street in his 2006 book, The Price of Admission, where he questioned how Kushner, a mediocre student at best, was accepted to one of America’s most prestigious institutions: Harvard.

A federal appeals court has put a roadblock in front of the government’s attempt to appeal a district judge’s decision to throw out its case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.

Bundy and other family members were charged after an armed standoff at their ranch over grazing fees the government claimed they had not paid. The government confiscated some of the family’s cattle, supporters from across the nation gathered and the standoff ensued. The feds eventually backed down.

But when the government put Bundy and others on trial for their actions, the case collapsed.

The Bundys’ lawyer, Larry Klayman, has written about the DOJ’s actions, in his WND columns as well as on the Cliven Bundy Legal Defense Fund site.

Britain is showing signs of a failed state amid growing anxiety about its plans to leave the European Union, CNN host Fareed Zakaria has warned. His grim diagnosis was met with both approval and eye-rolling on social media.
Speaking on his CNN political show ‘GPS,’ Zakaria argued that thanks to Brexit, the UK was marching towards disaster.

“Britain, famous for its prudence, propriety and punctuality, is suddenly looking like a banana republic as it makes reckless decisions, misrepresents reality and now wants to change its own self-imposed deadline,” Zakaria said in a segment that aired on Sunday. Dismissing the pro-Brexit claim that the EU has become a “statist juggernaut,” the CNN host quipped: “Britain’s Conservatives have gone nuts.”

A team of French air crash investigators say they have found “clear similarities” between last week’s Ethiopian Airlines crash and last October’s Lion Air disaster. Both 737 MAX aircraft plunged nose-first to their doom.

"During the verification process of the FDR (flight data recorder) data, clear similarities were noted by the investigation team between Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610, which will be the subject of further study during the investigation," the BEA said in a statement.

It can be hard to remember from down here, beneath the avalanche of words and promises and apologies and blogposts and manifestos that Facebook has unleashed upon us over the course of the past year, but when the Cambridge Analytica story broke one year ago, Mark Zuckerberg’s initial response was a long and deafening silence.

It took five full days for the founder and CEO of Facebook – the man with total control over the world’s largest communications platform – to emerge from his Menlo Park cloisters and address the public. When he finally did, he did so with gusto, taking a new set of talking points (“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you”) on a seemingly unending roadshow, from his own Facebook page to the mainstream press to Congress and on to an oddly earnest discussion series he’s planning to subject us to at irregular intervals for the rest of 2019.

This is one of many outrages going on around the country to destroy quality of life for all but the most wealthy and elite. YOU will live in a dinky $2,500 a month apartment right next to a train and bus route on a busy and noisy thoroughfare where you will be allowed, under close supervision, to eke out a meager living of cramped housing, bland diet with minimal food, a tight budget for water, an uninspired monolithic wardrobe (no MAGA hats), no rights other than what the government allows you, and mediocre medical care so you can SAVE THE PLANET! Socialism is wonderful – isn’t it? Or, maybe it’s just the rich man’s ruse to rip you off – so what else is new? Investigate the U.N.’s Charter, Agenda 21, or Agenda 2030 for some perspective, and remember, the United Nations IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!

More than 10,000 military personnel, 35 warships, 5 submarines and 59 aircraft and helicopters from 13 countries will take part in Exercise Joint Warrior until 11 April.

The aim of Joint Warrior is to allow the UK’s Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and their allies to conduct joint operations involving different forces and units and against a range of current and future threats.

Hollywood star Gary Sinise just opened up about why he has devoted so much of his time to helping veterans, and to lament the fact that many of his peers in the entertainment industry have politicized honoring the military.

Sinise has helped thousands of war veterans through The Gary Sinise Foundation, and he just told TIME that he does not see helping the military as a partisan matter.

“How have our defenders become a political issue? They defend us all. They are us all,” said the Forrest Gump star. “There are Democrats who serve our country, there are Republicans who serve our country.”

Some Hollywood liberals reacted to Thursday’s mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, by blaming President Donald Trump.

A shooter killed dozens of people in a New Zealand mosque and left behind a manifesto that endorsed a variety of causes on both sides of the political aisle.

A former member of the Federal Election Commission called for an investigation Sunday into alleged campaign finance violations by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her top aide Saikat Chakrabarti.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reported last week that Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti have since December 2017 held legal authority over Justice Democrats, the outside PAC that has been credited with manufacturing her upset primary victory over incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley in June 2018.

The conservative National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) also filed an FEC complaint last week, first reported by the Washington Examiner, alleging that Justice Democrats and another PAC controlled by Chakrabarti, Brand New Congress, funneled $1 million into two private companies under his control during the 2018 midterms.

Five illegal immigrants should be thanking their lucky stars the good men and women of the Border Patrol saved their lives.

Agents rescued five illegal aliens trapped on a snowy Arizona mountain this past Thursday, U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed and Fox News reported.

President Donald Trump on Friday called the special counsel investigation against him “illegal” and “conflicted” in response to reports about how the probe got started.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been leading the investigation since May 2017. Trump says there is now new evidence that the long-running inquiry was started on illegitimate grounds.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sent out an open letter on Friday requesting documents related to an alleged discussion between senior officials about removing President Donald Trump.

Trump has often found himself at odds with senior federal officials and he is the subject, of course, of a long-running federal investigation.

Now it appears Department of Justice (DOJ) officials reportedly, at one time, discussed whether they should remove him from office.

The Republican senator from South Carolina and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee wants answers about how that conversation went down.

Severe flooding hit Yorkshire, England, U.K. on March 16 and 17, 2019 after parts of the region saw more than half of their monthly rainfall average in just 24 hours.

Firefighters worked through the night to save Calderdale and Huddersfield after massively swollen River Calder flooded the region. Capel Curig in Conwy County was one of the worst-hit areas over after 136.6 mm (5.37 inches) of rain fell in just 24 hours on March 16 - this is more than half of its monthly rainfall average.

The floods caused traffic disruption and forced numerous high-water rescues.

In preparation for the Israeli general elections taking place less than four weeks away, Facebook emailed some ground rules to representatives of the political parties in the running, ahead of the launch of the company’s transparency tool, set for Friday.

The Supreme Court disqualified on Sunday the candidacy of Right wing Otzma Yehudit candidate Dr. Michael Ben-Ari from running in the April elections and approved the candidacy of a controversial Arab party, overturning March 6 decisions by the Knesset’s election board. The court also approved the candidacy of Professor Ofer Cassif, a far-Left Hadash candidate who has made controversial comments in the past.

When it comes to drones and warfare, the U.S. seems to have forgotten some valuable historical lessons.

On March 6, President Trump signed an executive order that revoked the requirement, formulated under the Obama administration, that U.S. intelligence officials must publicly report the number of civilians killed in CIA drone strikes outside declared war zones.

In this decision, Trump is bringing the U.S. back to where it once was: the state of non-transparency that defined Obama’s first term.

I arrived an absolute mess; most of us did. Bloated cheeks, sunken eyes, wearing my PTSD and depression on every inch of my face. I can’t say I really wanted to be there, even if I had volunteered. Ironic, wasn’t it?

This, a civilian treatment facility in nowhere, Arizona, was to be my last official duty as an officer in the U.S. Army – an ignominious end to a once-bright career. Still, the truth is I needed it: After several years of treatment for post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety, I wasn’t getting any better. The Army saw it and decided to retire me a few years early. Over the last year, my life ran off the rails – self medicating, spiraling, the standard drill for a broken vet.

On March 17th, a procession of worshipers of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate took place in Kiev.

According to Strana.ua, the procession was in honor of a holiday of Orthodoxy, which ends the first week of Great Lent, more than two thousand Kyivans took part.

But the critical feature of this years holiday procession was the public re-declaration of the anathema against the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, his moves against the Church which have resulted in the present schism.

Serbians engaged in a protest movement in the capital of Belgrade broke through the first line of security and trespassed into the lobby of the presidential offices.

“The police have confirmed that they will be able to provide security in the building, and the authorities will not allow violence to threaten anyone,” head of state President Alexander Vucic told reporters.

Today, more than a thousand protesters gathered in front of the presidential offices, where a Vucic press conference was being held. The meeting began at 12:00pm local time, after which the protesters attempted to break through the fence around the residence.

When I see Western leaders smiling, shaking hands and offering sage and heartfelt advice on tours of Africa, I just can’t help settling in for the show because you know some top level hypocrisy is just around the corner.

By far, my favorite part of politics is watching its highest level practitioners ignore whatever inconvenient facts from the past are getting in the way of the blatant self-interest of the present. The French leader visiting Africa? Well you know this is going to be a good one.

Africa is full of elephants, and many of them are political, sitting in the corners of rooms and trumpeting away merrily at the likes of Emmanuel Macron. His ability to ignore the weight of history has proved commendable.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's hopes of being 'entirely independent' of Buckingham Palace were cut short by the Queen and the Prince of Wales, an insider has claimed.

Harry and Meghan, who last week unveiled plans to create their own household when they swap Kensington Palace for Frogmore House, were reportedly held back by the senior royals who feared the couple would 'just go off and do their own thing'.

A source told the Sunday Times: 'They wanted their household to be entirely independent of Buckingham Palace, but were told "no".

President Donald Trump began his Sunday morning venting about 'Saturday Night Live,' complaining the show should be investigated by federal regulators for mocking him but not Democrats.

The president complained their treatment of him was 'like an advertisement without consequences' and a boost to help Democrats.

'It's truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of 'the other side.' Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows,' he wrote on Twitter.

President Donald Trump lashed out at several Fox News anchors on Sunday and argued they should be working at CNN, the network he loves to deride as 'fake news.'

It was an usual criticism of Fox News from the president, who is a loyal viewer and fan.

'Were @FoxNews weekend anchors, @ArthelNeville and @LelandVittert, trained by CNN prior to their ratings collapse? In any event, that's where they should be working, along with their lowest rated anchor, Shepard Smith!,' he wrote on twitter.

President Trump stepped up his pressure on General Motors to reopen an Ohio manufacturing plant that recently closed and put 1,700 people out of work.

Trump's arm-twisting came in a series of tweets on Saturday and Sunday.

He capped his weekend rant against GM with a tweet disclosing that he had vented his frustrations during a conversation with the company's CEO, Mary Barra.

'I am not happy that it is closed when everything else in our Country is BOOMING,' Trump wrote.

'I asked her to sell it or do something quickly. She blamed the UAW Union - I don't care, I just want it open!'

This is the incredible moment enormous American B-52 bombers land at a RAF base in the largest US bomber deployment to the UK since the Iraq war.

Amazing photos and video footage have captured the impressive US planes landing at RAF Fairford, in Gloucestershire, their new temporary base.

Their arrival on Thursday and Friday came ahead of a NATO exercise in Georgia, which will be a show of force against Vladimir Putin's neighbouring Russia - though it is unclear if the B-52s will be involved.

A Christchurch mosque has been linked to the drone killing of New Zealand al-Qaida suspect Daryl Jones.

The parents of an Australian killed alongside Jones say their son was taught radical Islam in Christchurch, where he also met Mr Jones.

Christopher Havard was killed alongside Mr Jones by a US drone in Yemen last year.

Catalonian independence activists are protesting on the streets of Madrid under the banner ‘self-determination is not a crime’.

More than 60 political collectives from Catalonia and other parts of Spain are heading to the nation's capital aboard 400 chartered buses, and are expected to gather and march between Atocha and Plaza de Cibeles.

Some of the world's most deadly sharpshooters were in Christchurch when New Zealand's worst ever terror attack unfolded on Friday, with NZSAS taking to the streets to help hunt the rampaging mosque shooter.

Snipers from the New Zealand military, as well as professional snipers from Australia and Asian countries, had been at the Defence Force shooting range at West Melton, 25kms west of the city, the Herald has been told.

When the massacre unfolded, they were sprung into action and understood to have been granted special powers to take up arms in order to protect the public.

NZSAS soldiers were photographed with weapons and balaclavas masking their face near the Al Noor Mosque by Hagley Park where a gunman stormed Friday prayer and shot dead more than 40 people.

Government forces and the Russian Military Police have kicked off a joint security operation in the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus. In particular, the operation targeted Jisreen, Mohammedia, al-Aftaris, al-Nashabiyah and Marj al-Sultan where a notable number of weapons and equipment was abandoned by militants after the defeat suffered from the Syrian Army in 2018.

According to reports, locals, many of them former members of militant groups, who opted to reconcile with the Damascus government, are assisting the operation with information about possible locations of hidden weapon caches.

It is premature to say whether recent activity at some of North Korea’s rocket facilities involved preparation for a missile launch, South Korea’s defence minister told a parliamentary hearing on Monday.

Perhaps we are pursuing the wrong objective. North Korea’s nuclear weapons program started in the 1950s. They will not abandon this capability. Continued pursuit of this impossible dream allows Kim to outplay us and imposes diplomatic, reputational and financial costs on America and our allies.

Yes, It’s Terrorism, Yes, It’s Tragic—and Yes, Elites Could Halt It, By Halting Immigration. But They Won’t.

Curt Mills reports on Bolton’s extensive and expanding influence in the Trump administration:

But in the meantime, in return for his occasional, minor humiliation, Bolton enjoys wide-ranging authority to craft the national security policy of the United States, behind the scenes. He’s the contra Mattis; instead of resigning in moral protest, Bolton wears the mask of obsequiousness, while subtly nudging a reluctant president toward a more tough-minded line.

The Venezuelan people have been fueled by almost two decades of fierce hostility from the imperialism of the United States, its allies and lackeys. It has been attacked on multiple fronts such as economic war, media war, and electric war, in the context of continuous coup tactics and irregular, or hybrid warfare. But yet Venezuela has emerged victorious and with high morale after each attack.

The last two major attacks of the colonialist and neofascist government of Donald Trump against Venezuela have been a complete failure. But the gang of thugs in charge of the imperial policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean came to dream that the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro and the building of the Bolivarian revolution would implode on February 23, or that, in the worst case, it would implode as a result of the greater and more prolonged terrorist sabotage against the electro-energetic system of Venezuela. Or due to the two attacks together.