An American envoy and a Bahraini academic posed for the camera at a Washington hotel in October 2020, grinning ear to ear. They held a copy of an agreement between the U.S. State Department and the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence to combat antisemitism in Bahrain. Ellie Cohanim, then the U.S. assistant special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, called it “a model for a society that actively espouses religious freedom, tolerance and diversity of peoples.”

Thousands of miles away, in Bahrain itself, Sheikh Zuhair Jasim Abbas was sitting in a solitary confinement cell. His family had not heard from him since July. They would not again for several more months. According to a UN panel, the Shi’a Muslim cleric was allegedly beaten, starved, sleep-deprived, chained, attacked with water hoses, forbidden from using the bathroom, threatened with execution, and prevented from practicing his religious rituals.

The Abraham Accords, the diplomatic agreements between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, have been hailed as a victory for religious tolerance. The image of Muslims and Jews dancing together has convinced American policymakers from both parties that peace is breaking out across the Middle East. The Biden administration is reportedly offering the Saudi government a huge bribe — perhaps even a commitment to go to war on the kingdom’s behalf — to get Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords as well.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman seems to sum up the Biden administration’s logic: that a Saudi-Israeli agreement would “open the way for peace between Israel and the whole Muslim world” and “dramatically reduce the Muslim-Jewish antipathy born over a century ago with the start of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.”

But the Abraham Accords are attached to a social order that is deeply unequal, divided along ethnic and religious lines. While Israel allows foreign Muslims to visit Jerusalem, it rules over millions of Palestinians against their will. (That conflict is more about nationalism in the here and now than “Muslim-Jewish antipathy.”) And while some monarchies in the Persian Gulf are beginning to embrace foreigners of different religions, those same states — especially Bahrain — treat their native Shi’a Muslims as a potential fifth column.

The commander of US Air Forces in Europe and Africa told reporters Wednesday that the US is considering moving its drone base in Niger following the July 26 coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

“There are several locations I’ll say that we’re looking at, but nothing’s firmed up. We have talked to some countries about it,” said Gen. James Hecker, according to Defense One.

The US’s main drone base in Niger, known as Air Base 201, cost $110 million to build and $20 million – $30 million each year to maintain. According to The Intercept’s Nick Turse, who focuses on US military operations in Africa, Air Base 201 is “the linchpin of the US military’s archipelago of bases in North and West Africa and a key part of America’s wide-ranging intelligence, surveillance, and security efforts in the region.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly next week, a statement from the prime minister's office said on Thursday, without specifying the exact location of the meeting.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, Turkish President Recep Erdogan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, according to his office.

The statement also said Netanyahu would deliver an address to the General Assembly on Friday morning.

Webmaster addition: Place your bets on how many standing ovations Netanyahu gets from the trained seals in Congress!

The Biden administration has tapped former Commerce Secretary and major Democratic donor Penny Pritzker to coordinate U.S. efforts to channel private sector reconstruction assistance to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the appointment on Thursday, just moments after the Treasury imposed a raft of new sanctions on Russia and Russian operatives for their role in the war on Ukraine.

“Working in lockstep with the Ukrainian government, our allies and partners, international financial institutions, and the private sector, she will drive the United States’ efforts to help rebuild the Ukrainian economy,” Biden said in a statement. “This includes mobilizing public and private investment, shaping donor priorities, and working to open export markets and businesses shut down by Russia’s brutal attacks and destruction.”

Pritzker, a native of Chicago with Ukrainian family roots, heir to her family’s Hyatt hotel fortune and a prolific fundraiser for Democratic party candidates, served as secretary of commerce during the Obama administration.

Webmaster addition: How about reconstruction aid for the US? Starting with the dilapidated and dangerous rail system!

Mali's ruling junta has cancelled festivities planned for the anniversary of the country's independence celebrated on September 22.

The announcement was made public Wednesday following a council of ministers.

Last year, Guinea's ruling military leader attended the military parade organized for the festivities of Mali’s 62nd independence anniversary.

During Wednesday's council of ministers, Mali’s military leader ordered the government to allocate the funds planned for this year's festivities to help victims of a series of recent attacks and their families.

The council also discussed the possible mobilisation of reservists.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with ABC News that he has “lots of regrets” over the way the US ended its 20-year of conflict in Afghanistan and “in the broader sense, the war was lost.”

“It didn't end the way I wanted it. That didn't end the way any of us wanted it,” Milley said. “Look, at -- when the enemy is occupying your capital ... that's a strategic setback, strategic failure. That's what I testified to in public. And there's no way you can describe that as a strategic success.”

"There is no doubt that America failed in Afghanistan; they didn't come here to leave without obtaining anything after twenty years. They had great goals, but the resistance of the Afghan people and the efforts of the Afghan people caused their defeat,” said Islamic Emirate spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.

Some military analysts said the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan was irresponsible.

"When a powerful nation leaves a territory, there should be a strategy, they should follow the procedures, and they should consult the people. Not in the way that we saw at the beginning, where there was a power vacuum and no responsible administration after they left," said Mohammad Matin Mohammadkhail, a military analyst.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell blamed Kosovo on Thursday for a failure to implement a deal with Serbia on normalising relations between the two former wartime foes.

Borrell spoke after talks in Brussels with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on the plan, which was agreed earlier this year but soon stalled.

"It was not possible to bridge the difference today," Borrell said after the meeting.

He said Kurti "was not ready to move forward" with setting up an association of Serb-majority municipalities, which would give them more autonomy and to which Pristina committed during a 10-year-long EU-sponsored dialogue with Belgrade.

The UN special envoy for Sudan who was declared unwelcome by the country’s military rulers announced his resignation Wednesday in a final speech to the UN Security Council, warning that the conflict between Sudan’s two military leaders “could be morphing into a full-scale civil war.”

Volker Perthes, who had continued to work outside Sudan, said the fighting shows no sign of abating, with neither side appearing close to “a decisive military victory.” He also said the violence in Sudan’s western Darfur region “has worsened dramatically,” with the warring parties blatantly disregarding human rights and civilians being targeted based on their ethnicity.

Perthes warned of “the risk of a fragmentation of the country,” pointing to a myriad of compounding crisis, including Darfur, the cross-border mobilisation of tribes, fighting in the country’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile provinces between the Sudanese military and rebels and rising tensions in eastern Sudan.

Russia on Thursday said the United States was hypocritical to criticise President Vladimir Putin's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because Washington had sown chaos and sent weapons to allies across the world.

"The United States has no right to lecture us on how to live," Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement.

For the United States and allies, the burgeoning friendship between Kim and Putin is a concern: Washington has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia, but it is unclear whether any deliveries have been made.

The United States, Antonov said, had built up a coalition in Asia, expanded military drills near the Korean peninsula and was supplying billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine.

"It is time for Washington to throw its economic sanctions into the rubbish dump," Antonov said. "Maintaining the unipolar dominance so beloved by American officials is no longer possible."

Six Israeli police officers were questioned over their involvement in the alleged branding of the Star of David on a Palestinian detainee last month.

After questioning, some of the officers were also suspended from service for a limited time, according to Israeli news outlet Ynet. It is not known how many officers were suspended.

The questioning followed an official complaint that was made by detainee Arawa Sheikh Ali who was arrested during a raid on his house in the Shu'fat refugee camp near Jerusalem.

The raid, which involved 16 police officers, lacked any body camera footage from any of the officers.

Palestinian citizens of Israel are poorer and less healthy than Jewish citizens, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) shows. 

The report, released on Tuesday in the run-up to the Jewish new year Rosh Hashanah, found that while only 7.6 percent of Jewish Israelis felt poorer over the last year, the number for Palestinian citizens stood at 43 percent. 

Another CBS report published earlier this year found that 53 percent of Palestinian households are likely to live in poverty compared to 18 percent of Jewish households. 

In the job market, Palestinian men face serious challenges and only 50 percent have a job compared to 64 percent of their Jewish counterparts. 

U.S. and Cuban officials made progress on a range of issues during high-level talks in Washington this week but were unable to narrow differences over the biggest disputes between the countries, Cuba’s vice foreign minister said on Thursday.

Cuba’s main concerns are that it remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and the Biden administration’s continuation of Washington’s Cold War-era economic embargo against the Communist-ruled island.

In an interview with Reuters, Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said: “We believe that it is unreasonable for the United States to continue to carry out a policy with which it disagreed before coming into office, that they know is hurting the Cuban population as a whole."

He said progress was made in talks on migration issues and cooperation in law enforcement, health, science and technology. “We welcome them, but they're not the defining factor, the overriding issue,” De Cossio told Reuters.

ViAqua Therapeutics, an Israeli-based biotechnology startup, has secured $8.25 million in funding for its oral RNA-based shrimp vaccine

The vaccine targets white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), which leads to a 15% reduction in global shrimp production each year

ViAqua plans to administer its RNA-based product via coated feed; the RNA molecules can inhibit gene expression, silencing disease-affected genes

Shrimp lack an adaptive immune system, the type that “remembers” exposures to infectious agents, so it’s long been assumed that shrimp cannot be vaccinated; now it’s becoming clear that shrimp do have some defense against viruses, which is only beginning to be understood

The risks of tinkering with shrimp genetics, and using mRNA shots in pigs, cattle and other animals intended for food, are completely unknown

On the verge of a catastrophic US defeat as predicted by Col. Douglas MacGregor, it might have only been a matter of time before Ukraine would attempt to ratchet up the conflict and launch a major attack against Russia’s state-of-the-art naval base in the Crimea located at Sevastopol on the Black Sea. 

The pre-dawn attack was a direct hit inside the base’s dry dock area and caused “severe damage’, perhaps beyond repair, to Russia’s most substantial naval assets including unknown fatalities. The attack deployed three UK-supplied Storm Shadow missile strikes along with unmanned drones as a Ukraine spokesman told Reuters ‘we confirm that a large landing vessel and submarine were hit; we do not comment on the means used for the strike.”    

Under international rules of war, Russia has total justification to respond directly to the UK as purveyor of the weapons in what was clearly a deliberate military attack – which is, of course, exactly what the warmongering US neocons are hoping for.   

The question remains why Ukraine would initiate such a blatantly suicidal attack sure to stir a major response from Russia; as if inviting a no-holds-barred nuclear retaliation, although, no doubt, finding a way to accuse Russia as the aggressor for escalating the conflict into a full fledged WW III.  

That demented concept only makes sense if it can be within the realm of the believable that certified lunatics are in control of US, NATO and western foreign policy with a willingness to sacrifice its own country, its own population and rest of the world in order to forestall the 2024 election.  Crazy….or maybe not.

The United States Supreme Court has temporarily halted an injunction that restricts the administration of President Joe Biden from collaborating with social media giants on the removal of false or misleading content.

Thursday’s decision is the latest move in an ongoing legal battle over whether Biden officials overstepped in their efforts to tamp down on COVID-19 misinformation during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Julian Assange is still imprisoned; journalism’s future is still in jeopardy.

Delegates from Australia’s parliament are headed to Washington to appeal to the U.S. Congress on behalf of the Wikileaks founder. While anyone who recognizes the injustice of Washington’s insistence on extradition of the jailed journalist and publisher, this effort by representatives of several parties may be too late. In any event, it is very late.

This Australian door did not open until the 2022 election of Anthony Albanese, who replaced Scott Morrison, ­­­­­the nation’s uncompromising Prime Minister.

For many years the campaign to gain justice for Assange was largely centered in London, with activists focusing their attention on a succession of legal appeals to the British court that could have freed Assange from prison and denied U.S.’s extradition order. Legal actions were buttressed by supporters who included vocal celebrity journalists appealing for justice on the grounds that this case was basically about a free press, and that the extradition, based on the U.S. 1917 Espionage Act, was inapplicable. Free speech advocates fear indictment of Assange by U.S. courts would set a dangerous precedent that would threaten the integrity of the entire profession.

President Joe Biden delivered remarks on the economy in Maryland today with Democrat Maryland Governor Wes Moore. During his speech, Biden made an odd remark about Moore, stating, “Gov, my problem is your biceps are a little small.”

During another portion of Biden’s speech, the President began violently shouting, screaming at the top of his lungs as a vein appeared on his forehead. Biden seemed to lose his cool. He can be quoted as shouting, “Same exact drug, made by the same exact company!”

The screaming seemed to come out of nowhere, and drew an audible gasp from the audience.

Webmaster addition: Biden is crumbling under the pressure!

Multiple students at a Florida high school are facing charges after fights broke out on the grounds on September 12. 

District spokesperson Corey Dierdorff confirmed that 14 students were involved in two brawls that broke out at Zephyrhills High School in Pasco County at lunch time. One brawl took place in the hallway and the other in the cafeteria. 

According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, 13 students are now facing charges which include battery and disruption of school function. The students could also face 'discipline' from the district. 

Cell phone videos of the fights were being heavily circulated on social media before they were pull down. The videos show students piled up on each other and fighting while staff kept struggling to break up the fight. At some point, the fights also included the school's principal who was seen trying to break up the fights before she ended up on the  ground.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected at the White House and on Capitol Hill next week as he visits the US during the United Nations General Assembly.

Zelensky’s trip comes as Congress is debating President Joe Biden’s request to provide as much as $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.

An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive visit, said Zelensky will meet with Biden at the White House next Thursday.

The trip to the Capitol was confirmed by two congressional aides granted anonymity to discuss the plans.

The Ukrainian president made a wartime visit to Washington in December 2022 and delivered an impassioned address to a joint meeting of Congress.

Webmaster addition: More and more I am convinced that the Burisma scandal reaches far beyond just the Biden family! Are members of Congress voting to send your money to Ukraine just to protect themselves?

GOP lawmakers sent a letter this week to CIA Director William Burns after a whistleblower claimed that analysts probing COVID-19 origins were offered money to alter their stance that the virus likely came from a Wuhan lab leak.

Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., joined their House counterparts in demanding answers from Burns, such as all of the "documents and communications between or among the members of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team(s) regarding the origins of COVID-19."

Paul told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday, "This is one of the biggest cover-ups in our nation's history, and we deserve answers."

In just over 48 hours this week, President Biden faced a double-barreled onslaught of political and personal setbacks, as his son’s business dealings and personal struggles created new turbulence at a time when his advisers wanted to focus attention on the problems of former president Donald Trump and House Republicans.

On Thursday, Biden’s son Hunter was indicted on charges of making false statements and illegally possessing a handgun, paving the way for a criminal trial that could unfold as Biden pursues reelection. That came two days after House Republicans opened a formal impeachment inquiry centered on whether the president benefited from his son’s business dealings, although they have produced little, if any, evidence to that effect.

Here's what the impeachment inquiry means

Neither the inquiry nor the indictment was unexpected, but the back-to-back developments underscored the challenges Biden faces as he runs for a second term. He faces no serious competition for the Democratic nomination, but some Democrats are growing increasingly concerned about his vulnerabilities, including his age, as polls show a tight race between him and Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Republicans are escalating their COVID origins investigation, demanding that the Biden administration and other key players comply with their requests or else face being subpoenaed.

The ramp up of their investigation comes the same week that a CIA whistleblower told Congress the agency bribed its own analysts to say COVID-19 did not originate in a Wuhan lab.

In a letter sent Thursday to HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra first obtained by DailyMail.com, the Republicans write they 'expect full and timely compliance' with their requests, which have gone unanswered since they launched the probe in February.

They are demanding documents between HHS and EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology - which were given U.S. taxpayer-funded grants to study bat coronaviruses through risky gain-of-function research. 

They also want details on a series of conference calls and communications between top HHS officials and medical professionals, organizations and others regarding the origins of COVID.

The lawmakers also sent similar letters to individuals they say have 'in-depth knowledge' of COVID origins, including Dr. Anthony Fauci's former chief of staff Greg Folkers, EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak, and Gray Handley, who was the liaison between the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chinese.

About 13,000 US auto workers at Detroit's big three firms stopped making vehicles and went on strike Friday after their leaders couldn´t bridge a giant gap between union demands and automakers in contract talks.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union's labor contract with Detroit's big three automakers expired at 11.59pm on Thursday, with it is demanding a 40 per cent pay rise for its 146,000 members over four years and a four-day work week not met. 

Automakers have countered with offers that are roughly half of that increase. Starting workers are currently paid around $18.04 an hour. 

Members began picketing at a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri, a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and a Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

President Joe Biden made a bizarre claim in a speech Friday that he'd taught political theory at an Ivy League university - despite only serving there as a visiting fellow and honorary professor.

Biden, at 80, the nation's oldest-ever president, was speaking at Prince George Community College in Maryland Thursday for an economic address he meant to contrast what he calls 'Bidenomics' with the police of predecessor Donald Trump.

At one point, however, the president turned his speech to a common theme, that Democracy is 'under attack' when he suddenly discussed his time at the University of Pennsylvania.

'We got to fight for it,' Biden said. ''I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years and I used to teach political theory. And folks, you always hear, every generation has to fight for Democracy.' 

However, while Biden served from 2017 to 2019 as the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Professor of the Practice, there is no record of him teaching classes.

Furious conservatives have begun boycotting Dove after the soap brand hired a Black Lives Matter activist notorious for destroying a white student's life over a remark she later admitted she may have 'misheard.' 

Carole Thorpe, from Charlottesville in Virginia, shared a snap of three bars of Dove soap tossed in the trash Thursday on learning the Unilever-owned brand had joined forces with Zyahna Bryant to push a 'fat liberation' campaign. 

Sharing her horror at news of Bryant's glitzy Dove gig, Thorpe wrote: 'After hearing that Dove Beauty chose Zyahna Bryant -who ruined Morgan Bettinger's life - for their 'fat acceptance ambassador,' THIS lifelong large lady & now former Dove customer tossed out the last three bars of Dove product she will EVER buy. I have written to Unilever too.'

Scores of other angry users on X, formerly known as Twitter, also vowed to stop buying Dove products in protest at the campaign, which 22 year-old Bryant has been pushing on Instagram. 

The White House has so far been unequivocal that President Biden will not pardon his son Hunter.

But that stance will be tested now that Hunter Biden has been indicted on three counts over gun charges - and faces a possible prison sentence.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre bluntly stated in late July that Biden wouldn't make the controversial move following the spectacular collapse of Hunter's plea deal with prosecutors. 

Now, the president’s son is facing up to 25 years behind bars over charges that would have been dispensed through a diversion program in plea deal which fell apart and led to the appointment of David Weiss as a special counsel.

Water contaminated with toxic metals is killing millions of people globally every year, a study suggests — and the majority of Americans drink it.

Researchers at the World Bank claim that lead in drinking water is responsible for more heart disease than smoking or bad diets.

Using blood tests from thousands of adults in 183 countries, they simulated the number of deaths from heart disease caused by lead — with their model saying 5.5million were caused by the heavy metal.

For comparison, smoking was linked to two million deaths from heart disease worldwide, while high cholesterol contributes to 2.6million.

Drew Barrymore's suspected stalker Chad Michael Busto was released from prison after being arrested for trying to break into Emma Watson's dressing room - as a hapless prosecutor said the celebrity prowler's offense was not eligible to have bail set.  

Busto, 43, was arrested on Friday night after he tried to bust into Watson's dressing room during New York Fashion Week, but the alleged creeper is already out on supervised release.

The move comes less than a month after Busto was freed by a Southhampton judge after he was arrested and charged with fourth-degree after stalking actress Drew Barrymore. 

Busto turned up at the star's Hamptons home on August 23, two days after confronting her at a live event at the 92nd Street Y. 

Busto, who failed to show for a fitting for his GPS monitor earlier this month now has an active warrant for his arrest, a Suffolk County representative confirmed with DailyMail.com.

Social media users have claimed Busto is known to target female celebrities including Amber Heard. Someone named 'C. Michael Busto' was booted from a Facebook fan group for the actress for 'sexual harassment,' 'threats' and 'stalking,' the Daily Beast reported.

Thousands of front-line workers are suing manufacturing companies over fears they have been exposed to dangerous forever chemicals.

A wave of lawsuits have been filed by firefighters and military workers who are all seeing above-average rates of cancer among their ranks.

They claim that it's the toxic chemicals that are in everything from their protective uniforms to the aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) firefighters use to extinguish certain types of fires, to the contaminated water around military bases.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated substances, are found in everything from food packaging to clothing and have been linked to several lasting health problems, including several types of cancer.

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the first time proposed limits on the chemicals in drinking water.