From The Independent
Nato sends 4,000 troops to Baltic to boost defences against Russia
‘This will send a clear signal that Nato stands ready to defend any ally’
- Jens Stoltenberg speaking at a press conference in Brussels NATO
From The Daily Mail
Markets stumble as TWO new polls showing a SIX point Brexit lead with just 10 days to go add to worries in the City the Out campaign has the referendum momentum
- ICM released polls, one online and one phone, which showed Brexit lead
- Both produced results indicated a 53% to 47% lead for Leave campaign
- Polling expert says the race is ‘far closer than the PM intended’
- Pound dips again as investors get twitchy about prospect of Brexit
- Odds on a Leave vote narrowing as polls show campaign gathering pace
- Ukip leader dismissed damage from lower sterling over weekend
Two new polls tonight indicated Brexit was six points ahead in the referendum race with just 10 days to go.
The surveys – both by ICM with one done by phone and the other online – showed an increase in the lead for leave from four points to six.
Both polls by the firm, carried out between June 10 and today, showed Leave on 53 per cent to Remain on 47 per cent. The new data follows a poll last week with a 10-point Brexit lead.
The results have contributed to continued market turmoil as the main FTSE-100 stock index closed down on the day.
The pound tumbled again this morning and continued to have another rollercoaster day, slipping again as the new polls were released.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Ukraine police accuse bank owned by Vienna Jew of massive fraud
(JTA) — Ukrainian police investigators accused representatives of a bank owned by an Austrian Jew of defrauding Ukraine out of more than $750 million and laundering that money for further use.
The alleged fraud took place between 2011 and 2015 with help from “a criminal group of unidentified persons who represented Meinl Bank together with beneficiary owners of a number of Ukrainian banks,†according to a statement made by the Ukrainian police’s fraud squad to a Kiev district court last month. The news site Glavcom published an expose on the probe last week.
Meinl Bank is run by Julius Meinl, 56, who in 2014 was elected president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress – one of five regional affiliates of the World Jewish Congress.
Queried by JTA for a reaction on the allegations, Meinl Bank spokesperson Thomas Huemer on Thursday wrote in an email that his bank “does not comment on rumors. The bank reiterates that all its activities are undertaken within the framework of all relevant laws and regulations.†The bank “strongly rejects any allegation of wrongdoing,†he added.
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From The Times of Israel
US officials: Threats against Muslims must stop after Orlando attack
Following massacre at gay nightclub, local Islamic community says it has suffered taunts and death threats
June 16, 2016, 2:31 am
ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) — US authorities on Wednesday warned that threats against Muslims would not be tolerated, and possibly prosecuted, after alleged incidents in the wake of the Orlando gay club massacre, which was carried out by a Muslim gunman.
Officials asked the public to help in the investigation of Sunday’s carnage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando — the worst mass shooting in American history, which left 49 people dead and 53 others wounded.
Gunman Omar Mateen was killed in a shootout with police.
Authorities refused to comment on reports that Mateen’s wife would face charges over her alleged knowledge of his intentions to carry out an attack, calling any talk of charges “premature” and saying no stone would be left unturned in the probe.
From The Times of Israel
Germany jails ex-Auschwitz guard, 94, for five years
Reinhold Hanning found guilty on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder; volunteered for SS at 18; was at camp from 1942-4, claimed he wasn’t involved in killings
June 17, 2016, 3:52 pm
BERLIN (AP) — A 94-year-old former SS sergeant who served as a guard at Auschwitz was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty Friday of 170,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he helped kill 1.1 million Jews and others at the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland.
Reinhold Hanning admitted to the Detmold state court during his trial that he volunteered for the SS at age 18 and served in Auschwitz from January 1942 to June 1944, but said he was not involved in the killings in the camp.
“It disturbs me deeply that I was part of such a criminal organization,” he told the court in April. “I am ashamed that I saw injustice and never did anything about it and I apologize for my actions.”
Despite his age, Hanning seemed alert during the four-month trial, paying attention to testimony and occasionally walking in to the courtroom on his own, though usually using a wheelchair.
Several equally elderly Auschwitz survivors testified at the trial about their own experiences, and were among about 40 survivors or their families who joined the process as co-plaintiffs as allowed under German law.
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From The Times of Israel
In internal cable, 50 US officials urge strikes on Assad forces
Dozens of State Department employees endorse document calling for military pressure on regime to end Syria civil war
June 17, 2016, 6:08 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of State Department employees have endorsed an internal document that advocates US military action to pressure Syria’s government into accepting a cease-fire and engaging in peace talks, officials said Thursday. The position is at odds with US policy.
The “dissent channel cable” was signed about 50 mostly mid-level department officials who deal with US policy in Syria, according to officials who have seen the document. It expresses clear frustration with America’s inability to halt a civil war that has killed perhaps a half-million people and contributed to a worldwide refugee crisis, and goes to the heart of President Barack Obama’s reluctance to enter the fray.
Obama called for regime change early on in the conflict and threatened military strikes against Syrian forces after blaming President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons in 2013. But Obama only has authorized strikes against the Islamic State and other US-designated terror groups in Syria.
While Washington has provided military assistance to some anti-Assad rebels, it has favored diplomacy over armed intervention as a means of ushering Syria’s leader out of power. A series of partial cease-fires in recent months have only made the war slightly less deadly, and offered little hope of a peace settlement.
The dissent document was transmitted internally in a confidential form and since has been classified, said officials, who weren’t authorized to discuss such material and insisted on anonymity. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both quoted from the document Thursday, saying they had seen or obtained copies.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
British Jewry condemns slaying of Labour lawmaker
(JTA) — The Board of Deputies of British Jews joined the chorus of condemnations over the slaying of a Labour Party lawmaker near Leeds, in northern England.
Jo Cox, 41, died Thursday from wounds she sustained after being shot and stabbed several times on the street, the Bristol Post reported. Police arrested a suspect, a 52-year-old man. His alleged motive remains unknown.
“The Board of Deputies wishes our condolences and prayers to all of Jo Cox’s family after her senseless murder today,†the Board of Deputies wrote on Twitter after word of her death spread. Before that, the organization said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with Labour MP Jo Cox after today’s horrific events.â€
Cox had passionately campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union in a June 23 referendum. According to some testimonies, the man believed to have shot Cox shouted “Britain first†before killing her, though other witnesses said they did not hear the shout.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Former Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon says he will run for prime minister
Moshe Yaalon speaking at a Tel Aviv news conference in which he announced his resignation from the Knesset, May 20, 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Moshe Yaalon made it clear that he intends to run for prime minister of Israel less than a month after resigning as defense minister and from the Knesset.
“I intend to run for the leadership in Israel in the next elections,” Yaalon said Thursday during a speech at the annual Herzliya Conference.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NYC cuts funding for Wiesenthal Center after trustee’s corruption indictment
After being arrested on federal corruption charges, Murray Huberfeld, the founder of a New York-based hedge fund Platinum Partners LP, leaving United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, June 8, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(JTA) — New York’s city council discontinued its funding for the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in the wake of the arrest of a museum trustee and hedge-fund manager implicated in a union kickback scheme.
The center had been expecting $500,000 for law-enforcement sensitivity seminars it runs, but the $82 billion budget approved by the City Council Tuesday gave nothing to the center, which received $655,000 over the past two years from the city, according to a report by CBS2.
The discontinuation was a result of last week’s indictment of Murray Huberfeld, a hedge fund manager suspected of raising $20 million from a New York City correctional officers union through kickbacks. A real-estate investor who allegedly conspired with Huberfeld was also a contributor to the Wiesenthal Center, and had helped secure city funding for its programs.
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From The Times of Israel
US House okays funding boost for Israel’s missile defense
Under the shadow of a presidential veto, over $600 million allocated for programs; pro-Israel groups criticize White House for opposing spending increase
June 17, 2016, 12:42 am
WASHINGTON — Under the shadow of a presidential veto threat, the House of Representatives passed a defense appropriations measure Thursday that included $635.7 million for Israel’s missile defense programs.
While the White House has offered conflicting explanations for its opposition to increased missile defense support for the Jewish state, pro-Israel groups on Thursday continued to criticize the administration’s reticence to accept the extra funding appropriated for Israel by the Republican-controlled House.
The massive $576 billion defense appropriations bill for the upcoming fiscal year included $268.7 million in research and development funding for US-Israel cooperative missile and rocket defense programs; $25 million in research and development funding for US-Israel directed energy activities, such as laser technologies, to combat missiles and rockets; $72 million for procurement of the Iron Dome rocket defense system; $150 million for procurement of the David’s Sling missile defense system; and $120 million for procurement of the Arrow-3 missile defense system.
The amount allocated to Israeli missile defense programs exceeded the sum requested by the Obama administration by over $400 million.
US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pose with military personnel next to an Iron Dome battery at Ben Gurion Airport on March 20, 2013. (Avi Ohayon/GPO/ Flash90)
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
French court fines writer for Facebook post saying Hitler should have finished the job
(JTA) — A French court slapped writer Alain Soral with a a $13,000 fine and a suspended prison sentence of six months for saying the Nazis should have finished killing the Jews of Europe.
The sentence, handed down Tuesday, was over Soral’s Facebook post of last year about Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, two anti-racism activists who helped track down dozens of Nazi war criminals.
“This is what happens when you don’t finish the job,†Soral wrote about an article on a state honor conferred on the Klarsfelds by Germany.
A judge found Soral, who is a well-known writer in far-right circles and an ally of the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, guilty of “justifying war crimes and crimes against humanity,†Le Figaro reported Tuesday. Soral has had multiple previous convictions for minimizing or mocking the Holocaust.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Watch
Filibustering for gun control, senator invokes ‘hero’ Holocaust survivor
In the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, engineering professor Liviu Librescu, a Romania-born Israeli Holocaust survivor, died blocking the classroom door and shouting “hurry” as his students fled through a window.
It was Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day.
Librescu, 76, was among 32 people killed in the mass shooting, the deadliest in U.S. history at the time. On Sunday, a gunman who swore allegiance to the Islamic State group massacred 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
Tim Kaine, in 2007 the governor of Virginia and and now its senator, is still haunted by Librescu’s murder and his heroism, and he attempted to make sense of it late Wednesday night.
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From The Times of Israel
Arab MK set to take part in new Gaza flotilla
Coming off 4-month suspension from parliament, Hanin Zoabi reportedly to board ‘Women’s Boat to Gaza’ in September; also sailed on 2010 flotilla
June 17, 2016, 8:51 am
Arab MK Hanin Zoabi is expected to take part in a women’s flotilla to the Gaza Strip this fall, Channel 2 reported Thursday.
According to the report, Zoabi was planning to participate in the “Women’s Boat to Gaza” flotilla to protest Israel and Egypt’s blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Zoabi’s office didn’t respond to Channel 2’s inquiries concerning her participation in the demonstration.
The lawmaker of the Joint (Arab) List is just coming off a four-month suspension from the Knesset for meeting with the relatives of terrorists killed while attacking Israelis.
She came under fire for taking part in the May 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza that ended in a deadly clash between pro-Palestinian activists and Israel Defense Forces troops.
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