https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ar-BB1n6Myr

Biden Administration Presses Allies Not to Confront Iran on Nuclear Program

BERLIN—The Biden administration is pressing European allies to back off plans to rebuke Iran for advances in its nuclear program, even as it expands its stockpile of near-weapons-grade fissile material to a record level, according to diplomats involved in discussions.

The U.S. is arguing against an effort by Britain and France to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s member state board in early June, the diplomats said. The U.S. has pressed a number of other countries to abstain in a censure vote, saying that is what Washington will do, they said.

U.S. officials deny lobbying against a resolution.

The differences are emerging as Western officials’ concerns have deepened about Iran’s nuclear activities.

On Monday, the U.N. atomic-energy agency reported that Iran’s stockpile of 60% highly enriched uranium rose 20.6 kilograms to 142.1 kg as of May 11 from three months earlier, its highest level to date.

U.S. officials say that material could be converted into weapons-grade enriched uranium in a matter of days. It would then be enough to fuel three nuclear weapons.

Some U.S. officials say they fear Iran could be more volatile as the country moves toward elections for a new leader after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash earlier this month. The Biden administration has long said it is seeking a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program.

European diplomats have warned that failure to take action would undermine the authority of the IAEA, which polices nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. They say it also weakens the credibility of Western pressure on Iran. And they are frustrated over what they see as U.S. efforts to undermine their approach.

Neighbours condemn North Korea launch that ends in mid-air fireball

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/27/north-korea-fires-ballistic-missile-japan-live

North Korea’s latest satellite launch ended in a mid-air explosion on Monday night, Pyongyang said, hours after its announcement of the planned projectile was criticised by Seoul and Tokyo.

The launch of the Malligyong-1-1 reconnaissance satellite “exploded in the air during the first flight and failed to launch”, North Korea’s space agency said in a statement carried by state media, adding the “cause of the accident was the reliability of the newly developed liquid oxygen and oil engine”.

Japanese broadcaster NHK ran footage of what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky, which then exploded, saying it had filmed it from northeast China at the same time as the attempted launch.

Pyongyang had notified Japan earlier on Monday that it was planning to put another satellite into orbit, after a successful attempt in November, plus two failed efforts earlier last year.

Nuclear-armed North Korea is barred by multiple UN resolutions from tests using ballistic technology, and analysts say there is significant technological overlap between space launch capabilities and the development of ballistic missiles. “Our military detected around 22:44 (1.44pm GMT) on Monday the trajectory of what’s suspected to be the North’s military reconnaissance satellite fired from Tongchang-ri area in North Pyongan province southwards,” Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said.

But two minutes later “many fragments of the projectile were detected in North Korean waters, and the US and South Korea are analysing whether it had an operational flight,” the JCS added.

Japan also confirmed the launch and the government briefly issued an alert, warning residents of southern Okinawa prefecture to take cover in shelters, but it was lifted minutes later.

Nuclear-armed North Korea successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite last November, drawing international condemnation, with the US calling it a “brazen violation” of UN sanctions.

The attempted launch came just hours after Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo wrapped up their first trilateral summit since 2019.

US national security adviser, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince meet to discuss ‘semi-final’ security deal

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Joe Biden’s national security adviser met early Sunday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss what the kingdom described as the “semi-final” version of a wide-ranging security agreement between the countries.

The announcement by the state-run Saudi Press Agency comes as the strategic deal had been upended after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage back to the Gaza Strip.

In the time since, a punishing Israeli airstrike campaign and ground offensive there has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, endangering the security deal that had included Saudi Arabia diplomatically recognizing Israel for the first time since its founding in 1948.

>Saudi state media released no images of Jake Sullivan and Prince Mohammed meeting in Dhahran, a city in the kingdom’s far east that’s home to its state-run oil giant, the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. known as Saudi Aramco.

“The semi-final version of the draft strategic agreements between the kingdom and the United States of America, which are almost being finalized — and what is being worked on between the two sides in the Palestinian issue to find a credible path — were discussed,” the statement released after the talks said. That included “a two-state solution that meets the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and “the situation in Gaza and the need to stop the war there and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid,” the statement added.

Saudi Arabia has long called for an independent Palestinian state to be created along Israel’s 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital. However, that likely may be untenable for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government hinges on support from hard-liners who oppose a two-state solution and support Israeli settlements on lands Palestinians want for that state. The White House issued a statement early Monday after Sullivan traveled to Israel and met with Netanyahu, saying the Saudi talks “focused on a comprehensive vision for an integrated Middle East region.” The statement did not elaborate, other than to call the talks “constructive.”

Saudi Arabia has long relied — like other Gulf Arab nations — on the U.S. to be the security guarantor for the wider Middle East as tensions over Iran’s nuclear program in recent years have spilled over into a series of attacks. The proposal now being discussed likely would deepen that, and also reportedly includes access to advanced weapons and possibly trade deals as well.

Saudi Arabia has also pushed for nuclear cooperation in the deal that includes America allowing it to enrich uranium in the kingdom — something that worries nonproliferation experts, as spinning centrifuges opens the door to a possible weapons program. Prince Mohammed has said the kingdom would pursue a nuclear weapon if Iran had one. Iran in recent weeks has increasingly threatened it could do so.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York meanwhile confirmed that Tehran held indirect talks with U.S. officials in Oman last week. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted the mission as describing the talks as “an ongoing process.”

ah cursed digits

https://apnews.com/article/saudi-arabia-us-israel-security-deal-hamas-war-gaza-strip-5b09666aeb6de0573c01e99cabb7946e

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Meet the Jewish grandmother who ran New York’s gritty 1970s porn scene

>An unlikely figure dominated the adult entertainment theater scene in New York City in the 1970s and 80s: a Jewish grandmother who’d fled the Holocaust

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/chelly-wilson-queen-of-deuce-b2551578.html

From the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, adult entertainment films dominated the theaters along 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue in New York City, earning it the nickname “The Deuce”. Throughout the week, those theaters played hardcore pornographic movies for those brave enough to walk the chaotic and disruptive street.

And the person who ran those theaters was Chelly Wilson, a Jewish Greek grandmother.

Wilson, a Holocaust survivor, became one of the most influential figures during the era, eventually producing and distributing adult films in theaters that she owned.

Bunkered in an apartment above the all-male Adonis Theatre, she regularly held court with entertainers, poker players, female lovers and more all while her grandchildren ran at her feet.

A new documentary, Queen of the Deuce by Valerie Kontakos, explores Wilson’s life from escaping Europe during World War II to becoming an unlikely influential figure at the height of the golden era of adult entertainment, with interviews from both friends and family.

“Grandma Chelly was, to us, larger than life. Going into her apartment was always an interesting experience — she was living over a pornographic movie theater,” said one grandchild in the film’s trailer. “She owns most of the porn theaters in New York — and then I’d get that right note, what does your grandmother really do? I was like ‘no, that’s the truth actually,” said another.

Wilson was one of the last people to leave Europe before the Nazi occupation in 1939. She left her two children behind, instructing a caretaker to never turn them over to anyone else, and sought a better life in New York. And she found a different type of life on 42nd Street in the mid-1970s. The neighborhood’s provocative theaters inspired peep shows and massage parlors to open up around. Sex workers walked the streets at all hours every day. One New York Times article from 1971 claimed “40 prostitutes are arraigned” on a “normal Thursday.”

Muggings and violent crime were constant in the area too.

But when faced with an environment everyone else ran away from, Wilson set up shop above one of the theaters.

Her film career began by playing Greek movies in rented-out theaters to honor her heritage and cater to the Greek community in Manhattan. She married her second husband, Rex Wilson, a film projectionist and the two had a daughter together.

>The public perception of adult films shifted during the “porno chic” era. Movies like Blue Movie and Deep Throat captivated audiences and critics – pushing the films from taboo to mainstream.

In one North Carolina county, it’s ‘growth, growth, growth.’ But will Biden reap the benefit?

https://apnews.com/article/biden-economy-north-carolina-computer-chips-trump-7e3415e660e78403b6ab261cdf55fe97

SILER CITY, N.C. (AP) — At the epicenter of President Joe Biden’s promised economic boom, a slow tractor can still halt traffic.

Just 81,000 people live in rural Chatham County, North Carolina. There are 1,076 farms. The old mill now houses a dance studio, a grocer and a steakhouse. For work, many people have no choice but to commute to nearby Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh.

But after years of careful planning, Chatham County has started to change.

The newWolfspeed factory— six football fields long — overlooks U.S. Highway 64 andwill soon produce advanced wafers for computer chips. Automaker Vinfast is scheduled to open a factory as well. Both projects stem in large part from incentives that Biden signed into law.

<Developers, including the Walt Disney Corp., plan to build several thousand new homes.

“When the right opportunity came along, we were there and we were ready,” said Greg Lewis, who owns the steakhouse. “It is growth, growth, growth.” That same economic story is being replicated in a number of other critical battleground states, including Arizona and Georgia.

But while the kind of enthusiasm voiced by Lewis would usually mean a strong tailwind for an incumbent president, so far this election year there is little evidence from polling that Americans are giving Biden credit for the gains as voters still focus instead on inflation still climbing at 3.4% annually.

Places like Chatham County show how this year’s presidential campaign offers two conflicting visions for America’s economic future. Voters face a decades-defining choice about what can do more for growth: former President Donald Trump’s preference for tax cuts skewed toward business and the wealthy or the targeted government investments backed by Biden as well as possible tax increases to fund programs for the middle class.

The county backed Biden over Trump in 2020 but sits in the solidly Republican congressional district of Rep. Richard Hudson. He voted against the Democratic president’s policies and his office declined to answer questions about whether the investments in his district are a positive.

Just how much the influx of federal and private sector money affects the political dynamics in North Carolina and beyond will have a lot to say about who will win November’s presidential election.

These US properties are linked to the most notorious cults

https://nypost.com/2024/05/27/real-estate/these-us-homes-are-linked-to-the-most-notorious-cults

>Allison Mack's house is still up for sale

What’s next with NXIVM?

Many learned about the disturbing tales of the twisted sex cult NXIVM from the HBO documentary “The Vow.”

The supposed self-help program lured in actors and was overseen by leader Keith Raniere. Eventually, Raniere was convicted of multiple crimes and sentenced to 120 years in prison.

However, two of the properties used by the cult surfaced in upstate New York. One belonged to “Smallville” actress Allison Mack, who became involved in the cult. She later pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in association with sex trafficking tied to the cult. Mack served three years in prison and was released last July.

Her Halfmoon, NY, three-bedroom townhouse built in 1985 had been rented out for $1,800 a month, until the place was sold for $270,000 in 2022. Another nearby townhouse, with ties to the cult, seems to have been in the process of a gut renovation when photographed. The home was last sold for $64,500 in 2018 and is now on the market for $148,000.

The listing notes that the two-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot residence presents a “great opportunity to transform this space into a home.”

And a transformation will be necessary: It’s apparently a place where Raniere reportedly had sex with a victim of sex trafficking.NXIVM’s charismatic leader Keith Raniere oversaw a shadier subgroup called DOS.

https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/nxivm-properties-in-limbo (2020)