From The Times of Israel
Seven injured, 2 critically, in California stabbing at neo-Nazi rally
Fight breaks out between white supremacists, counter-demonstrators near capitol building in Sacramento; no arrests yet made
June 27, 2016, 2:37 am
Seven people were hospitalized with at least two in critical condition after a stabbing spree broke out during a neo-Nazi rally Saturday at California’s state capitol building, officials said.
California Highway Patrol Officer George Granada said about 30 members of the Traditionalist Worker Party were gathering for a rally around noon Sunday when they were met by about 400 counter-protesters and a fight broke out.
Granada said no arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon.
He added that the Capitol remained on lockdown three hours after the large fight but that things had calmed down and only about 70 “anti-fascists” remained in the area.
From Russia Today
US destroyer gets dangerously close to Russian patrol boat in Mediterranean – Moscow
Published time: 28 Jun, 2016 11:49
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely © Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker / U.S. Navy / Reuters
The US guided-missile destroyer Gravely breached international navigation safety rules by coming within dangerous proximity of the Yaroslav Mudry, a Russian frigate, in the eastern Mediterranean, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
The USS Gravely approached the Yaroslav Mudry, a Russian frigate, on June 17, passing across her course at a “dangerous” distance of 180 meters (55ft), the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The encounter occurred in international waters. The Yaroslav Mudry did not deviate from her course and refrained from engaging in dangerous maneuvering with the US warship, the ministry added.
Click here for the full story
From Russia Today
Calais migrant crisis: Brexit will make France ‘more demanding’ of UK
Published time: 28 Jun, 2016 11:26
Migrants stand near a Calais city sign along a road near the makeshift camp called “The New Jungle” in Calais, France © Regis Duvignau / Reuters
France will be “more demanding” of the UK with regard to migrants in Calais camps, French Economy minister said, adding that Brexit created a “political context” for revision of the border deal between Paris and London.
Emmanuel Macron, French economy minister was speaking in the town of Saint-Omer in Calais Region on Monday.
According to the minister, Brexit created an “obvious political context” for the discussion of Le Touquet treaty. The deal was reached between the UK and France back in 2003 and defined the rules of border control between the two countries.
The Treaty of Le Touquet stipulated that France would carry out border checks in Calais to intercept those seeking to make illegal crossings to the UK. The deal, which regulates border controls and police, judicial cooperation in criminal matters, civil protection and migration, came into force in 2005.
Brexit “reopens these issues and we have a right to be more demanding to our British partner” in regard to the migrant crisis in Calais, Macron said as quoted by AFP.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Some see racist undercurrent in British decision to leave EU
Use of anti-migrant imagery and rhetoric by ‘leave’ campaigners ‘comparable to Nazi propaganda and just straightforwardly racist,’ expert claims
June 26, 2016, 2:09 am
LONDON — Some leading British politicians and academics are interpreting Britain’s choice to abandon the European Union as a deliberate decision to sacrifice economic stability in exchange for the right to stop the flow of immigrants — a decision, they say, that was partly driven by racism.
In a bitter campaign marked by allegations of racial prejudice, global financial leaders repeatedly warned that a departure from the 28-member European bloc would produce long-term financial uncertainty. On Friday, the pound plunged to a historic 30-year low.
“Either people discounted that or they decided that the price of sovereignty and stopping the hordes of migrants was worth the economic hit,” said Brian Klaas, a fellow in comparative politics at the London School of Economics.
“This is a global moment of fear,” Klaas said, drawing comparisons to the rise of the presumptive Republican US presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
“Both the Trump voters and the disenchanted working class voters in northern England have decided they’re the victims of globalization and that the cause of their suffering is a bureaucracy far away,” he said. “This is a protest vote, even if it’s misguided.”
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Israeli siege on Gaza hurts people, strangles economy: UN
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, saying the siege inflicts pain on people and damages the economy of the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Ban made the criticism on Tuesday during his trip to Gaza in a press conference at the al-Zaytoun school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Tel Aviv’s blockade of Gaza “suffocates its people, stifles its economy, and impedes construction,” he said, warning that the siege fuels tensions between the Palestinians and Israelis.
The UN chief further highlighted the UN support for the people of Gaza, saying that the world body “will always be with you.”
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
Meanwhile, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl, who accompanied Ban in his trip to Gaza, stressed that the visit “comes at a time of deep despair in Gaza,” calling on the world community “to pay far more attention” to the situation in the blockaded coastal sliver.
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Turkey denies apology to Russia over downed jet
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says Turkey has only expressed regrets to Russia over a downed jet in Syria, denying reports of an apology.
Yidirim also reversed an earlier offer of compensation to Russia for shooting down one of Moscow’s military jets in November, Turkish media reported on Tuesday.
“Compensating Russia is not on the table, we have only expressed our regrets,” CNN-Turk cited him as saying, hours after he said Ankara was ready to offer compensation for the incident.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had apologized to Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a letter.
Erdogan’s spokesman confirmed the letter, but said the Turkish president had only expressed regret and asked the family of the pilot killed after the downing to “excuse us.”
The denial came just as the Kremlin said on Tuesday that President Putin will hold a phone conversation with Erdogan on Wednesday.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Muslim mayor wants to ‘do more to protect Jewish Londoners’
Sadiq Khan, the Labour Party candidate for London mayor, and his wife Saadiya Khan, posing for photographers after voting in London, May 5, 2016. (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)
(JTA) — London Mayor Sadiq called for the rooting out of anti-Semitism in his city and in his party.
Khan said he wants “to send a message around the world by being the London mayor of Islamic faith who does more to protect Jewish Londoners from anti-Semitism than any mayor in this city’s history.”
Khan, a Labour Party member who was elected May 5 and is the first Muslim to lead a European capital city, made his remarks in an Op-Ed in the Jerusalem Post Monday.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Sharansky: Arab, far-right anti-Semitism mean no future for Jews in France
PARIS (JTA) — Arab immigration to France and deep-seated anti-Semitism in that country mean its French Jews have no future there, the head of the Jewish Agency for Israel said.
Natan Sharansky made this declaration on Monday in the French capital, where he was attending a Jewish Agency Board of Governors meeting, held in the city for the first time as a sign of solidarity with French Jews.
“We came here because there are historical processes here,” Sharansky said of France, which for the past two years has been Israel’s largest source of immigrants thanks to a record-setting movement by 15,000 Jews who settled in Israel in that time. “There is no future for the Jews in France because of the Arabs, and because of a very anti-Israel position in society, where new anti-Semitism and ancient anti-Semitism converge,” Sharansky told JTA.
Since 2012, Islamists have killed eight Jews in two shooting attacks that came amid hundreds of non-lethal violent assaults. A French citizen with alleged ties to Islamist groups is standing trial in France for a third shooting in 2014 at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, in which four people died.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
US Presbyterians vote to ‘re-evaluate’ two-state solution
(JTA) — Several Jewish groups objected as The Presbyterian Church (USA) passed several resolutions aimed at pressuring Israel and re-evaluating church support for the two-state solution.
At the church’s General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, that ended Sunday, one resolution approved the report by a committee looking at the two-state solution and possible alternatives, “including but not limited to that of two sovereign states — Israel and Palestine.” The report, approved 429-129, said the church “stands with the people of Israel, affirming their right to exist as a sovereign nation” just as they affirm such rights for Palestinians.
However, the report also suggested that facts on the ground, mostly but not solely the fault of Israel, have made the possibility of a two-state solution dim if not impossible.
Another resolution called for the “prayerful study” of the church’s use of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and opposition to BDS.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
J Street lauds Democrats for putting Palestinian rights in platform
Despite rejection of language calling for ‘end to occupation and settlements,’ new stance still marks step forward, head of dovish lobby says
June 26, 2016, 4:23 am
Dovish Israel lobby J Street offered full-throated approval for the Democratic Party’s new platform late Saturday, saying the draft document’s recognition of Palestinian rights marked “an important step forward.”
Drafting of the document lasted into the early hours of Saturday, with the committee eventually voting down an amendment led by James Zogby that would have called for providing Palestinians with “an end to occupation and illegal settlements” and urged an international effort to rebuild Gaza.”
Instead, the draft dropped that language and advocated working toward a “two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict” that guarantees Israel’s security with recognized borders “and provides the Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity.”
J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement that the language nonetheless represented a “more balanced approach” from previous Democratic party platforms.
“The new language breaks with the party’s practice of framing its aim of establishing a Palestinian state solely in terms of Israel’s interests,” he said. “By including parallel acknowledgement of Israeli and Palestinian rights, the party underscores its belief that the only viable resolution to the conflict–a two-state solution–requires recognizing the fates of the two-peoples are intertwined.”
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Protesters tee off on Trump during Scottish golf jaunt
Demonstrators with Mexican flags rush onto hill overlooking links as presidential candidate tours controversial course
June 26, 2016, 12:43 am
BALMEDIE, United Kingdom — Protesters bearing Mexican flags invaded a Scottish golf course owned by Donald Trump on Saturday as the presidential hopeful visited the estate, which is hugely controversial locally.
Holding home-made signs reading “Love Trumps hate” and “Stop the hating”, the protesters rushed onto a hill overlooking the Trump International Golf Links clubhouse in northeastern Scotland.
Trump employees ushered journalists away as the chanting protesters appeared, waving a gay rights rainbow flag and the red, white and green Mexican tricolors.
Neighbors whose properties border the estate have raised the flag in a symbol of opposition and solidarity due to Trump’s disparaging remarks about Mexican people and promise to build a wall on Mexico’s border with the US.
A Mexican flag waved in the breeze close by as Trump touched down on a golf course green in a helicopter emblazoned with his name.
Click here for the full story
