Swedish PM Pushes Back Against Trump, Says A$AP Rocky "Won't Get Any Special Treatment"

In a statement published on Sunday, the Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Lofven said that he had told President Trump in a phone call that A$AP Rocky, an American rapper who is being detained in a Swedish jail on assault charges and has been denied bail because he's a "flight risk," would not be allowed any special treatment.

Citing Sweden's official statement, the New York Times reports that the phone call lasted about 20 minutes, and that the Swedish characterized it as "friendly and respectful."

The prime minister "underlined that in Sweden everyone is equal before the law and that the government cannot and will not attempt to influence the legal proceedings," the statement said.

The PM's statement appears to undercut President Trump's account of the call. The president said the PM had assured him that Rocky would be "treated fairly," though Trump said he had personally offered to guarantee Rocky's bail, and that the two leaders had agreed to speak about the issue again on Monday.

The Swedish government, according to NYT, has faced accusations of human rights abuses and racism as rumors about the rapper's treatment spread. Some said he was sleeping on a yoga mat spread over a concrete floor, and that he was eating one apple a day.

Whether those rumors are exaggerated or accurate, a groundswell of celebrity support for Rocky has brought the issue to the White House's attention. First, senior aide and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner tried to intercede on Rocky's behalf (he reportedly helped secure better accommodations for Rocky), then, after conversations with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Trump tweeted that he would call the Swedish PM.

On Saturday morning, Trump said the Swedish PM had assured him that Rocky would be treated fairly, and that Trump had offered to personally guarantee Rocky's bail. Trump said the two had planned to discuss the issue again on Monday.

Video footage of the incident appears to show Rocky acting in self-defense:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-21/swedish-pm-pushes-back-against-trump-says-aap-rocky-wont-get-any-special-treatment

And now ‘apologize to Israel’: Trump in new rant on ‘weak, insecure’ Omar, Tlaib & co.

President Donald Trump is unshaken by the accusations of “racism” he faces amid a feud with the Democratic Party’s ‘Squad,’ slamming them for being “hateful” and demanding an apology to the US – and Israel.

The four congresswomen are “destroying the Democrat Party” through their actions, yet they “can never destroy our great Nation” since they are “weak & insecure people,” Trump tweeted on Sunday, further fueling the ongoing feud.

I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said.

The heated row between the president and the four lawmakers – Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) – has been going on for some time already, with neither side pulling any punches.

Last week, Trump urged the four to go back to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” sparking a massive backlash and accusations of racism from the Democrats. Except for Omar, the congresswomen were actually born in the US.

The “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Israel” card has been played by Trump against the congresswomen before, as Omar and Tlaib are prominent supporters of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement. Ironically, Israel said earlier on Sunday it won’t bar the congresswomen from visiting “out of respect for Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America.”

Earlier in the week, the president’s supporters added more fuel to fire during a rally in North Carolina. At the event, Trump addressed Omar’s “vicious anti-Semitic screeds,” as he put it, accusing her of smearing the US military and supporting Al-Qaeda. The statement was met with chants of “send her back.”

Trump later claimed he “disagreed” with the reaction and that he started speaking as quickly as possible to interrupt the crowd. Omar fired back, calling the president “fascist” and “racist.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/464698-trump-dems-israel-apology/

Twitter mutes 3 Iranian news agencies after British tanker seizure

The Farsi accounts of three Iranian news agencies have been suspended on Twitter since Friday, shortly after they reported the capture of a UK-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Twitter says the events are unrelated.

Two Farsi-language Twitter pages of Mehr News Agency, as well as pages belonging to the Young Journalists Club (YJC) and IRNA, have all been blocked on Twitter since Friday. Mehr and the YJC are semi-official news agencies, and IRNA is Iran's official government-run agency.

Accounts of Iranian news agencies blocked by Twitter © Twitter

Mehr and IRNA's English-language accounts were still accessible as of Saturday evening.

Twitter apparently didn't tell the targeted agencies why they had been abruptly suspended, at least not immediately. Mehr said on its English website Saturday evening that it was in the dark about the reason for Twitter's crackdown, while denouncing it as “illegal.”

The YJC denounced its suspension, saying the targeted agencies “had no other purpose than the publication of news and information.” It reported that the accounts of other Iranian users were also suspended in the purge.

https://www.rt.com/news/464663-twitter-iranian-agencies-suspended/

THE HONEY TRAP ON E 71ST

NEW YORK – I’ve had many strange experiences in my decades of covering intelligence affairs. These run from being invited to KGB HQ in Moscow, Chinese intelligence in Beijing, US intelligence in Virginia, Libyan intelligence in Tripoli, South African intelligence, and even Albanian intelligence in Tirana.

But none was odder than the day I was invited to lunch in New York City with the by now notorious figure Jeffrey Epstein. The golden boy of Manhattan and Palm Beach society now sits in a grim jail cell accused of having sex with underage girls. He’s been doing this in plain view since the early 1990’s but, until recently, he seemed bullet-proof.

Soon after I walked into the entrance of Epstein’s mansion on E 71st Street, said to be the city’s largest private home, a butler asked me, ‘would you like an intimate massage, sir, by a pretty young girl?’ This offer seemed so out of place and weird to me that I swiftly declined.

More important than indelicacy, as an old observer of intelligence affairs, to me this offer reeked of ye old honey trap, a tactic to ensnare and blackmail people that was old when Babylon was young. A discreet room with massage table, lubricants and, no doubt, cameras stood ready off the main lobby.

I had arrived with Canada’s leading lady journalist who was then close to Epstein’s sometime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell and, it was said, procuress – something Maxwell denies. Bizarrely, Maxwell believed that I could get KGB Moscow Center to release satellite photos that showed the murder on his yacht of her father, the press baron Robert Maxwell, who was a well-known double agent for Israel and KGB, and a major criminal.

Also present was the self-promoting lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who had saved the accused murderer Claus von Bulow, as well as a titan of the New York real estate industry (not Trump) and assorted bigwigs of the city’s elite Jewish society. All sang the praises of Israel.

Epstein reportedly had ties to Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew and repeatedly flew them about in his private jet, aka ‘the Lolita Express.’ All guests deny any sexual activity. I turned down dinner with Prince Andrew.

Epstein’s residence in Manhattan and Palm Beach, both of which I visited, were stocked with young female ‘masseuses.’ All were working class girls making big money in their spare time. I did not see any interactions between these girls and the guests.

Epstein and Maxwell became too big for their britches. They flaunted their sexual adventures and laughed at New York society. Everyone wondered about the source of Epstein’s lavish income but no one knew its origins. He claimed to be an exclusive money manager for a group of secretive millionaires. But the only one identified was billionaire Leslie Wexner, the owner of L Brands and Victoria’s Secret. Wexner denied any knowledge of Epstein’s alleged crimes.

Besides sexual frolics, Epstein and Maxwell were up to many odd things. The FBI found diamonds, cash and a fake passport when raiding his mansion and documents showing his net worth at $559,120,954.00. The IRS tax people will be eager to review the sources of this income.

It seems likely that political influence was brought to bear on then US attorney Alexander Acosta (he just resigned under fire last week) to make a sweetheart deal with Epstein, who had been charged by Florida with child molestation. Epstein got off with a token, 13-month jail sentence that allowed him to work from his office much of the day.

Were Trump or Clinton involved? How much did they ‘party’ with Epstein and revel in his fleshmart? There was talk of some sort of ‘intelligence’ angle to the affaire Epstein that spared him a harsh sentence.

A respected former CIA official, Phil Giraldi has come right out and accused Epstein of being an Israeli agent of influence. Epstein was let off with a slap on the wrist on his first child abuse charge, says Giraldi, because of his powerful Israel connections. To Giraldi and this writer, the Epstein ‘massage’ operation was a classic intelligence operation designed to blackmail men of influence into doing Israel’s bidding. Clinton had reportedly already fallen into this trap years earlier while still president.

Now watch this stinking pile of corruption be hurriedly covered up. Talk about draining the swamp.

https://ericmargolis.com/2019/07/the-honey-trap-on-e-71st/

Sen. Bob Menendez Obstructs Key Votes In Foreign Relations Committee

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez has been denying key votes and hearings as the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including a vote on the nomination of Kelly Craft to U.N. ambassador.

“Committee members have a right and responsibility to vote, and Menendez is actively working to deny not only votes but also hearings,” a Senate aide told the Daily Caller. “Menendez is corrupting the historic integrity of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and taking away the tradition of comity that has been a hallmark of this committee’s work.”

Craft, who currently serves as the ambassador to Canada, was nominated by President Donald Trump to U.N. ambassador in early May and had her hearing in mid-June. But Craft has yet to receive a committee vote that will determine whether or not her nomination moves to the Senate floor, leaving the U.S. without a high-level official to conduct business at the U.N. Security Council.

After Craft’s hearing, Menendez demanded additional information about the 300 days the ambassador spent outside of her post in Ottawa, Canada. Craft says those trips were primarily spent on official business to negotiate the USMCA trade deal.

“The bottom line is, without the full record, we can’t evaluate it,” Menendez said about Craft’s travels.

The Senate aide, however, paints a more nefarious picture of Menendez’s requests.

“He obstructs by saying he needs more information, but then he moves the goal posts after the majority has gone to great lengths to get his initial requests satisfied,” the aide argued.

In the meantime, the majority is hoping to vote on Craft’s nomination before the August recess, as the U.N. will host the General Assembly in New York in September. Her nomination is on the agenda for a business meeting next week, but allegedly without Menendez’s approval, as is common courtesy in the Foreign Relations Committee.

Menendez allegedly pulled a similar move with the nomination of Jeffrey Eberhardt to Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation. Eberhardt’s nomination was originally approved for a May 2 markup, but was pushed to May 22 and then “uncleared” by Menendez, who similarly demanded more information about the nominee.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/07/20/bob-menendez-senate-foreign-relations-committee-obstruction/

France and Germany call on Iran to release the seized British tanker immediately

Last week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard confiscated a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz near the Persian Gulf, further escalating tensions between the two countries.

According to the British Foreign Office, immediately following the seizure of the British-flagged tanker, the Iranian Charge d’Affaires in London was summoned by the UK government.

Jeremy Hunt, the UK Foreign Secretary, has said that he feared that Iran was going down a “dangerous path” after it had seized the tanker, Reuters reports.

Hunt also referred to the situation as “unacceptable”.

In a tweet, Hunt wrote, “Yesterday’s action in Gulf shows worrying signs Iran may be choosing a dangerous path of illegal and destabilising behaviour after Gibraltar’s LEGAL detention of oil bound for Syria.”

France’s Foreign Ministry also echoed similar concerns over Iran’s seizure of the vessel, emphasizing that the latest move undermines efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said it “strongly condemned” the seizure and expressed its “full solidarity with the UK,” Reuters reports.

The German government also expressed similar sentiments, saying that the seizure was unjustified. A spokesperson from the German foreign ministry urged Tehran to release the ship and its crew immediately while it stressed that additional escalation of tensions would interfere with legitimate efforts to find a way out of the current crisis.

Iran’s Fars news agency quoted a government official who said that the oil tanker “Stena Impera” was in an accident with a fishing boat before it was detained. The official added that all 23 crew members who were on board of the detained tanker were currently at the port of Bandar Abass and will remain on board the ship until the end of the investigation.

This latest incident marks a clear escalation in tensions between Iran and the UK following the recent detainment of Iranian supertanker Grace 1 by the British Navy off the coast of Gibraltar earlier in the month.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/07/france-and-germany-call-on-iran-to-release-the-seized-british-tanker-immediately/

Hedge Fund CIO: "Everyone Plans To Sell To Someone Else Before This Market Rolls Over"

Submitted by Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

Capitulation Collage

"“Based on my many conversations, if I were to create a composite of the emerging consensus amongst traders today, it would be this,” I said, answering the investor’s question.

“The trade war and America’s domestic political drama has sparked an economic soft patch. The Fed has panicked. It’ll cut rates even though it doesn’t need to. Every other country is stimulating too. And just as the stimulus kicks in, we’ll have a trade war truce which will reignite animal spirits in corporate board rooms everywhere, lifting capital investment."

"But that’s not the end of the story,” I said, describing the emerging consensus.

"The starting point in terms of positioning is a massive investor underweight in risk assets. Despite the S&P being at all time highs, there have been investor outflows. Active managers are all underperforming and are scrambling to chase performance. Corporate buybacks continue at a $1trln/year pace. There is $13trln in negatively yielding debt globally. And now that we’re in an earnings recession, people say things are probably going to get better anyway."

"The continued shift toward passive investing is pushing more cash into the market,” I continued.

“Pensions are taking more risk in order to hit their magic +7.5% return targets. The capitulation to this collective view has grown over the past month. Before that there were plenty of bears. And now everyone agrees this will be the last leg of history’s longest bull market."

"Guys managing other people’s money seem more bullish than those who trade their own capital. Naturally, everyone plans to sell to someone else before this market rolls over."

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-21/hedge-fund-cio-everyone-plans-sell-someone-else-market-rolls-over

Italian Police: Nigerian Mafia Being Radicalised by Islamist Influences

According to a new report, members of the Nigerian mafia are at risk of radicalisation as the influence of groups like Boko Haram spreads among members.

The report, released by the Italian Anti-mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA), claims that members of the Nigerian mafia have constant contact with individuals in their home country.

The DIA added that there is a real risk of Islamic radicalisation and advocated for strict monitoring of mafia members in Italian prisons, Il Giornale reports.

The various methods used by the Nigerian mafia in their criminal enterprises are also documented, including the use of advanced technology mixed with ancient practices, such as Voodoo rites, which have been used to control and threaten prostitutes and others.

Members who try and leave the Nigerian mafia are also dealt harsh punishments, often being killed by other members. One group in Bologna is said to have threatened to torture and then burn members alive if they broke the group’s rules.

In 2016, one member of the Nigerian mafia decided to co-operate with Italian authorities and told them, “When I entered this organization, the things I saw were horrible and made me unhappy. You can stop being part of it only with death.”

He described his initiation into the mafia, saying, “They told me to undress, to stay in my underwear and kneel down. They started brutally beating me, with kicks and punches for twenty minutes.”

After the beating, the group burned a piece of paper containing their symbol in his hands.

The Nigerian mafia are known to be particularly brutal, according to Italian criminologist Alessandro Meluzzi, who claimed that members would often indulge in cannibalism after committing a murder.

“It is a routine to cut victims into pieces and, in some cases, to eat parts of their bodies,” he said.

“In the Nigerian mafia, ritual cannibalism is not an exception, but a rule. These are normal things for them, but here nobody talks about it, out of fear of being called racist. We should get used to these things: this is just the tip of an iceberg destined to grow larger,” he warned.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/07/21/italian-police-nigerian-mafia-being-radicalised-by-islamist-influences/

"Astonishing Scenes" In Hong Kong Where Triad Members Attack Pro-Democracy Protesters As Violent Clashes Return

Well over a month after the latest bout of Hong Kong street protests erupted, the situation remains tense as ever when more than seven hours after the start of a major march against Hong Kong's now-suspended extradition bill, riot police in Hong Kong fired rounds of tear gas on protesters along Connaught Road Central, following skirmishes and a tense stand-off.

In an unexpected twist, the SCMP reports that in a darker turn of events on Sunday, a group of men in white suspected to be triad members attacked passengers at Yuen Long MTR station, particularly those wearing black, the color of protesters.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-21/hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-violent-protests-return-triad-members-attack

The Infiltration of the Truth Movement

Has the truth movement been infiltrated? That is the question explored in the following. In general, the question drew us toward the truth, in all respects, not the rigid answers that have been accepted and pushed blindly by the masses.

Likely, if you are reading these words, you are a truth rebel, you dare to question the status quo. Shining our light into all the darkness, even within ourselves, is the hardest task, but one with the greatest potential for making ourselves and the world a better place. Shall we begin?

How important is the truth? What power does it have to make our lives better? Can it make us happier, more fulfilled?

For most, the answer is yes — and no.

The truth is both the source of future happiness and bliss as well as the destroyer of falsehood and incompleteness. As such, when you encounter a new truth, it tends to shake us up.

It tends to activate us. How well we let that truth transform us depends on our willingness to grow and change, guided by discernment and wisdom.

The truth — once received in the mind, lived by action in the body, felt in the heart through observation — is arguably the most powerful force in the universe, below the love, which gives truth life in our personal lives.

If you love the truth with a whole heart, you will be raised, step by step, experience through experience, to the heights of spiritual glory. But this is easier said than done.

Questioning your truths doesn’t always feel good, and often it can be painful, but only when we fight the rising tide.

In such cases, experience itself often humbles us when our incomplete knowledge creates chaos in our lives. Therefore, taking the opportunity to question ourselves before calamity strikes, saves us unnecessary pain and suffering.

The truth movement is a loose term referring to those who’ve felt the desire to make sense of a world that seems chaotic, cruel, and indifferent.

Generally speaking, it encompasses conspiracies, spirituality, government corruption, and anything that society, for one reason or another, has deemed untrue or unreal. But more than this, the truth movement is a personal call to claim the treasures of wisdom that all are welcome to take hold of.

Psychologically, the pain, suffering, and uncertainty of life push us to seek knowledge so we can improve our lives. Whole systems of neurology exist for the purpose of rewarding us for seeking knowledge and building skill. And these same systems make us feel negative emotions when we don’t grow.

Without honest reflection, discussion, and a willingness to refine knowledge gained form truth-seeking, the sure result is dogma, stagnation, and devolution.

The truth is an infinite reality. But our minds are limited, by nescience, trauma, pain, egoism, and of course, time and space. Even though the truth is all around us, seeking for it requires an act of will.

“Knowledge must grow or the knowledge keeper will die, smashed against the rocks of willful ignorance.”

https://healthandmoneynews.wordpress.com/2019/07/21/the-infiltration-of-the-truth-movement/

California Launches Cradle To Grave Data Tracking System

California Is Launching a Creepy “Cradle to Career” Data System to Track EVERYTHING About Children

Just in case we haven’t provided you with enough creepy dystopian news lately, the nation’s leader in Creepy Dystopia, California, has a brand new program. The “Cradle to Career Data System” will study and document everything about a child born in the state.

But don’t worry, it’s for your children’s own good.

What the heck is the “Cradle to Career Data System”?

Beginning at birth and stalking the child until he or she joins the workforce, California wants to keep on eye on all sorts of demographics and variables. They’ll do this by collecting information from “partner entities.” They’ll use this information, according to the Pasadena Star, to “provide appropriate interventions and supports to address disparities in opportunities and improve outcomes for all students.”

Who are these partner entities, you ask?

The “partner entities” include (but are not limited to) “state entities responsible for elementary and secondary education data, entities responsible for early learning data, segments of public higher education, private colleges and universities, state entities responsible for student financial aid, childcare providers, state labor and workforce development agencies, and state departments administering health and human services programs.” (source)

So, your kid’s teachers, principles, professors, babysitters, and the purveyors of any state services you happen to use will all cough up every detail of your child’s life.

Of course, California just wants to help.

This to me has hints of communist countries who pluck the brightest students from their home and educate them to work for the state. However, the admitted goal is data collection for the folks who make the rules.

Easily the creepiest thing to come out of California since “The Silence of the Lambs” was released into theaters, the “Cradle to Career Data System” aims to collect the ethnic, economic and educational records of every child in the state, track their grades and their progress into early adulthood, and make some form of the data available to policy makers, analysts and activists. (source)

This isn’t a maybe. It’s already passed as a trailer bill (so it didn’t go through the usual legislative process) and has been funded with a budget of $10 million.

The governor’s Office of Planning and Research is now authorized to enter into contracts with “planning facilitators” who will convene advisory groups “comprised of representatives of students, parents, labor, business and industry, equity and social justice organizations, researchers, privacy experts, early education experts, school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education.” (source)

Californians, your children’s privacy is at stake here. They are going to become part of a pile of data that will be used to enact future laws to assure “equity.” But at any time, these records will be there, the life of your child, every time they got sent to the principal’s office, who stands up to authority, who has special skills or talents, what the child’s parents are like. That person’s entire life in one handy file. And pardon me if I don’t believe the data collection will stop once they get a job. Data is king right now, so why give up on a good thing?

We’re already tracked everywhere we go once we’re old enough to have a cellphone or use the internet. But this starts right, as the title of the program points out, at the cradle.

https://healthandmoneynews.wordpress.com/2019/07/21/california-launches-cradle-to-grave-data-tracking-system/

Hackers breach FSB contractor, expose Tor deanonymization project and more

Hackers have breached SyTech, a contractor for FSB, Russia's national intelligence service, from where they stole information about internal projects the company was working on behalf of the agency – including one for deanonymizing Tor traffic.

The breach took place last weekend, on July 13, when a group of hackers going by the name of 0v1ru$ hacked into SyTech's Active Directory server from where they gained access to the company's entire IT network, including a JIRA instance.

Hackers stole 7.5TB of data from the contractor's network, and they defaced the company's website with a "yoba face," an emoji popular with Russian users that stands for "trolling."

Hackers posted screenshots of the company's servers on Twitter and later shared the stolen data with Digital Revolution, another hacking group who last year breached Quantum, another FSB contractor.

This second hacker group shared the stolen files in greater detail on their Twitter account, on Thursday, July 18, and with Russian journalists afterward.

FSB's secret projects

Per the different reports in Russian media, the files indicate that SyTech had worked since 2009 on a multitude of projects since 2009 for FSB unit 71330 and for fellow contractor Quantum. Projects include:

Nautilus - a project for collecting data about social media users (such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn).

Nautilus-S - a project for deanonymizing Tor traffic with the help of rogue Tor servers.

Reward - a project to covertly penetrate P2P networks, like the one used for torrents.

Mentor - a project to monitor and search email communications on the servers of Russian companies.

Hope - a project to investigate the topology of the Russian internet and how it connects to other countries' network.

Tax-3 - a project for the creation of a closed intranet to store the information of highly-sensitive state figures, judges, and local administration officials, separate from the rest of the state's IT networks.

BBC Russia, who received the full trove of documents, claims there were other older projects for researching other network protocols such as Jabber (instant messaging), ED2K (eDonkey), and OpenFT (enterprise file transfer).

https://www.zdnet.com/article/hackers-breach-fsb-contractor-expose-tor-deanonymization-project/

‘Clear and Decisive Win’: Why Netanyahu Needs a War on Gaza More Than Ever Before

Media reports of an impending Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip are now a regular occurrence. The frequency of these reports fluctuates based on Israel’s own political landscape.

Empirical experience has taught us that when Israeli leaders are in trouble, they wage a war on Gaza. Now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing the greatest challenge in his political career, Gaza is bracing for another Israeli war.

The war rumors are no longer just that. Rightwing Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post recently reported that Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Aviv Kochavi, “has already approved operational combat plans and recently set up an administrative unit to handle the formation of a list of potential targets in the coastal enclave for when the next war breaks out.”

The Post’s own military correspondent, Anna Ahronheim concurs, that, indeed, war on Gaza “is not far away.” But unlike previous wars, the upcoming war must “have a clear and decisive win” by Israel so that “the other side will think twice about going to war in the future.”

The fallacy in Ahronheim’s analysis is obvious. Israel always approaches its wars in Gaza with the aim of having a “clear and decisive win”, aims that are often thwarted by strong Palestinian resistance in the besieged and impoverished Strip.

Second, Gaza never initiates wars. The Strip has no army or military strategy beyond self-defense tactics carried out by organized resistance factions, including Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and various PLO groups. However, if Israel thinks that a ‘decisive win’ would eradicate Palestinian resistance, it will be greatly disappointed. Gaza’s resistance, in all of its forms, against Israel and Israeli occupation goes back to the late 1940s. No amount of firepower will ever end this kind of determined resistance.

However, it is likely that Israel measures the decisiveness of its ‘victory’ based on the amount of destruction it is able to inflict on Palestinians.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190721-clear-and-decisive-win-why-netanyahu-needs-a-war-on-gaza-more-than-ever-before/

We fear 'creepy' Israelis, say UK women in Cyprus hotel at center of rape case

British female holiday-goers in Aiya Napa tell the Daily Mail, tourists from Israel, most in their late teens, pester them for sex; victim of the alleged rape said the 12 Israelis 'hurt my whole body' after she'd agreed to meet up with one of them, not knowing 11 others would be there

The British women who stay at the Cyprus hotel where the alleged rape of a 19-year-old girl by 12 Israeli youths took place, say Israelis endlessly pester the female vacationers for sex.

Last Tuesday 12 Israelis aged 16-18 have been detained by Cyprus police after a British woman alleged that she was raped at the Pambos Napa Rocks hotel in Ayia Napa. The remand of the young men was extended by eight days by a Famagusta District Court during a hearing on Thursday in order to allow all the DNA evidence to be examined.

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5554606,00.html

Bolton Directs 'Venom' at UK in Hopes of Dragging London 'Into Quagmire' - Iran's Zarif

Relations between Tehran and Washington have soured significantly since the US withdrew unilaterally from the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018. US National Security Adviser John Bolton stated earlier this month that Iran will remain under pressure until Tehran abandons its nuclear weapons programme and 'violent activities' in the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has taken to Twitter, accusing US Security Adviser John Bolton of being behind an attempt to drag London into a quagmire after failing to lure President Trump into 'the war of a century'. The official added that prudence and foresight were the only options available when countering such ploys.

Make no mistake:

Having failed to lure @realDonaldTrump into War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his #B_Team, @AmbJohnBolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire.

Only prudence and foresight can thwart such ploys.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 21, 2019

Relations between Iran and the United Kingdom have been tense since Tehran captured the British-flagged Stena Impero oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. London has criticised what it describes as an illegal act and has urged Iran to release the tanker.

The seizure comes after UK forces detained the Iranian-flagged Grace 1 oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar earlier this month, citing a breach of EU sanctions against Syria.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201907211076312322-bolton-directs-venom-at-uk-in-hopes-of-dragging-london-into-quagmire—iranian-fm-zarif/

Trump Is Back Under Bolton’s Thumb

Paul Craig Roberts

President Trump might be his own man, but not when it comes to John Bolton and Israel. Trump is their man and is again being manipulated into starting a fisticuffs with Iran.

Someone in Washington, most likely Ziocon warmonger Bolton, got the UK to commit an act of piracy on the high seas and seize an Iranian oil tanker, Grace 1, on the grounds that Iran intended to deliver the oil to Syria in violation of US sanctions.

Iran’s leader, Khamenei, denounced Washington’s British stooge for “maritime banditry” and said there would be consequences. Today there were. Iran detained two British tankers.

This is what Bolton and Netanyahu wanted. They used it to wind up Trump’s fulminations against Iran. The trouble that the idiot British started with Iran is no concern of ours, but Trump’s threats are nevertheless issuing at a rapid pace.

The British call Iran’s response to their banditry “an escalation” that requires “further protection for merchant vessels . . . to ensure enhanced security to guarantee free flow of trade in the region.” Of course, the British did not think their act of banditry caused a need for “enhanced security to guarantee free flow of trade in the region.” It is quite alright for Britain to seize ships but not for Iran.

The British Foreign Secretary offered Iran the release of Grace 1 if Iran guaranteed it would not breach Washington’s sanctions on Syria by delivering oil. Washington’s sanctions, of course, are totally illegal and devoid of any basis in international law, as is the British enforcement of Washington’s illegal sanctions. One wonders why Russia doesn’t stop this escalation by taking over the delivery of oil supplies to Syria.

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/07/19/trump-is-back-under-boltons-thumb/