From Russia Today
It’s official: UK votes to leave EU
Published time: 24 Jun, 2016 06:06
© Rob Stothard / Reuters
Britons have voted to leave the European Union by 52% to 48% in a national referendum. The pound has plummeted and the news has triggered panic on the markets.
The ‘Leave’ campaign garnered 1,269,501 more votes than those who wanted to see Britain remain part of the European Union.
Stock markets from Tokyo to London collapsed on Friday as the UK’s major media networks projected a victory for the “Leave” campaign.
Click here for the full story
From Russia Today
‘Sad day for Europe’ as EU contemplates life without UK
Published time: 24 Jun, 2016 06:56
© Vincent Kessler / Reuters
The UK’s decision to leave the EU has caused much soul-searching across the bloc with an almost universal acknowledgement that Brussels needs to change. Euroskeptics across the bloc now believe it’s time for their countries to leave the EU.
The President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that the EU “respects the result” but it has its own responsibilities after now having clarity that the UK intends to go its own way. He was speaking before British Prime Minister David Cameron announced he was preparing to step down as the UK leader.
“Now is the time for us to behave seriously and responsibly. David Cameron has his responsibilities for his country; we have our responsibilities for the future of the EU. You can see what is happening to sterling on the markets. I don’t want the same thing to happen to the euro,” Schulz said.
European Council President Donald Tusk says that the EU is “determined to keep our unity as 27” and that the bloc had been “prepared for this negative scenario.”
“All the procedures for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU are clear and set out in the Treaties. In order to discuss the details of further proceedings, I have offered the leaders an informal meeting of the twenty seven in the margins of the European Council summit. And I will also propose to the leaders that we start a wider reflection on the future of our Union,” he said.
The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the UK’s decision to leave the bloc was a “sad day for Europe.”
Click here for the full story
From Russia Today
‘June 23rd will go down in history as our independence day’ – Nigel Farage
Published time: 24 Jun, 2016 06:29
Nigel Farage (front), the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) reacts with supporters, following the result of the EU referendum, outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain June 24, 2016 © Toby Melville / Reuters
The leader of the Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, has called for June 23 to go down in history as ‘Independence Day’, adding that it’s a “victory for ordinary, decent people, a victory against the big merchant banks.”“It’s a victory against the big merchant banks, against the big businesses, and against big politics,” Farage told supporters following the Brexit vote.
“I’m proud of everybody who had the courage in the face of all the threats, they had the guts to stand up and do the right thing.”
“People here don’t understand – they are too wealthy, they don’t get – what open-door, mass immigrations, the result of EU-membership has done to people’s wages, availability of getting GP appointments or their kids to go local schools…. I’m thrilled that we’ve done this.”
“The other big effect of this election is not what’s happened in Britain, but what will happen in the rest of Europe,” he added.
“In Denmark, a majority there are in favor of leaving, so we could be quite close to Dexit. And I’m told the same may apply to Sweden, and perhaps Austria, and perhaps even Italy too.”
Click here for the full story
From Russia Today
Merkel wants Germany military budget boosted to counter ‘external threats’
Published time: 22 Jun, 2016 05:22
German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets members of 4th Company, Rapid Action Force Medical Service (SES) of the German armed forces, Bundeswehr, at an army barracks in Leer, Ostfriesland, Germany © Fabian Bimmer / Reuters
Germany should substantially increase its defense spending to cope with “external threats,” Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, stressing that Berlin can’t count on the US, and the EU is incapable of defending itself.
During an economics conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Merkel said the EU can’t rely on the transatlantic partnership with the US to deal with external threats, Reuters reports.
“Sure enough this means that a country like Germany, which today spends around 1.2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, and the United States, which spends 3.4 percent of GDP for defense will have to converge,” Merkel said.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Cameron to resign as British PM after shock Brexit triumph
UK leader says results of EU referendum require ‘fresh leadership’ and a new ‘captain’; will quit by party conference in the fall
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday announced he would resign in the coming months, following the UK’s dramatic vote to leave the European Union.
Cameron said he is not the “captain” that will steer the country through negotiations to leave the 28-nation bloc, which he opposed, and said he would tender his resignation by the time of the Conservative party conference in the fall.
He promised to try to “steady the ship” over the next months, but said a new leader should be installed by early October.
“I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination,” the British leader said outside his official Downing Street residence in London.
The UK requires “fresh leadership,” he said, adding that the will of the British people must be respected.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Top Trump aide: He’d back Israeli annexations in West Bank
David Friedman tells newspaper that Republican candidate would not necessarily support Palestinian state if elected
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would support an Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank and would likely back a complete annexation if Israel deems it necessary, a top aide to the candidate told Haaretz in an interview published Thursday.
David Friedman, who serves as Trump’s adviser on Israel along with Jason Dov Greenblatt, told the paper that, if elected, his boss wouldn’t necessarily adopt the positions of previous US presidents in supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“Not without the approval of the Israelis,” Friedman said. “This is an issue that Israel has to deal with on its own because it will have to deal with the consequences… The Israelis have to make the decision on whether or not to give up land to create a Palestinian state. If the Israelis don’t want to do it, so he doesn’t think they should do it.”
Trump, he stressed, did not see a Palestinian state as “an American imperative” in any way. “Trump’s position is that we have to deal with reality and not hopes and wishes.”
He also called into doubt Palestinian rights to the land, saying, “We don’t accept the idea it is only about land. Nobody really knows how many Palestinians actually live there.”
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Netanyahu grows jittery over Middle East Quartet report
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to soften the tone of a Middle East Quartet report critical of Tel Aviv’s expansion of illegal settlements on the occupied Palestinian lands and its opposition to a French initiative for peace with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
The publication of the report by the Quartet group – the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia – has been delayed for several times, but Israeli officials say it will only be released after Netanyahu meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in the Italian capital city of Rome early next week. The Israeli prime minister is also scheduled to hold talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on June 28.
Diplomats confirm that the current language in the forthcoming report is strong and harshly criticizes Israel’s construction of settler units in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), which is considered illegal under international law.
“As it stands, the language is strong and Israel isn’t going to like it,” Reuters quoted a diplomat briefed on the content as saying on condition of anonymity.
There is speculation that the wording of the report may be softened before it is published next week.
The Quartet report was written following a meeting of its foreign affairs representatives in Munich, Germany, earlier this year. The senior diplomats sought to explore the reasons behind a stalemate in the negotiations between Israel and Palestinians, and the revival of the so-called peace talks between the two sides.
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East. Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future independent state, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Lithuania lifts major obstruction to citizenship applications by Jews
(JTA) — Lithuania’s parliament passed legislation that is expected to simplify the naturalization of Litvak Jews abroad and their descendants.
Under amendments passed Thursday by the Seimas in Vilnius, Lithuanians who left before 1990 and their direct descendants may be naturalized without renouncing their other nationalities.
The legislation passed with 96 its 141 lawmakers voting in favor, the Baltic News Service reported. President Dalia Grybauskaite must ratify the amendments for them to go into effect.
They lift a stipulation based on case law that voided such eligibility for many Jews whose ancestors left Lithuania during its brief pre-Soviet period of independence, from 1919 to 1940. The courts had ruled that those who left during those years are not considered political refugees and therefore cannot benefit from a naturalization policy that aimed to restore Lithuanian nationality for dissidents who fled communism.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Ban champ Tyson Fury from boxing over anti-Semitic comments, ex-titlist Wladimir Klitschko says
Tyson Fury before the Heavyweight European Championship at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany, May 7, 2016. (Oliver Hardt/Bongarts/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Former world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko called for his successor to the crown, Tyson Fury, to be banned from boxing over anti-Semitic, homophobic and sexist comments.
On Thursday, Klitschko described the remarks in May by Fury, who took the Ukrainian’s title in November, as “Hitler-like.”
Fury, 27, of Britain, was filmed warning viewers not to be “brainwashed” by Zionist Jews, who he said own all the banks and media. He later apologized for the remarks.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Marco Rubio decides to run for reelection, citing intention to kill Iran deal
Marco Rubio speaking at a news conference at Temple Beth El in West Palm Beach, Fla., March 11, 2016. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Marco Rubio cited his intention to kill the Iran nuclear deal in his decision to run for reelection to the Senate.
The Florida Republican, first elected in 2010, opted out of running to keep his seat when he announced his candidacy last year for the Republican presidential nomination. He was driven out of that race this year by Donald Trump, who defeated Rubio in his home state primary and is now the presumptive nominee.
But on Wednesday, Rubio reversed his decision and said he would run, citing the Iran sanctions relief for nuclear rollback deal, which he had pledged as president to tear up.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, on eve of Genesis award, slams Trump
Itzhak Perlman appearing on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” at Rockefeller Center in New York City, Feb. 25, 2011. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Itzhak Perlman spoke out against Donald Trump a day before the Israeli-American virtuoso violinist is to receive a $1 million prize dubbed the “Jewish Nobel.”
In an interview with The Associated Press published Wednesday, Perlman said he is still upset at Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, for mocking a disabled reporter last fall.
Perlman, a longtime advocate for people with disabilities, was referring to a November incident in which Trump flailed his arms to mock a New York Times reporter who has a congenital condition that restricts joint movement. Trump has denied he was mocking the disability.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A reflective Bernie Sanders, acknowledging Clinton as nominee, talks Trump, Larry David and what moved him to tears
“It doesn’t appear that I’m going to be the nominee, so I’m not going to be determining the scope of the convention,” he said.
During the hourlong interview Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major nominating contests, spoke of the prejudices that American society had overcome, including against Jews, only to encounter them again in the campaign of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The Independent senator from Vermont said he remained dedicated to defeating Trump.
He also reflected on how moved he was by the support his insurgent campaign garnered and joked about the influence that comedian Larry David, who handled Sanders impressions on “Saturday Night Live,” had on his campaign.
Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Clinton, Sanders Democratic platform drafters find common ground on Israel, Palestinians
Former Rep. Howard Berman, left, and Cornel West, right, listening to testimony at a Democratic Party platform drafting committee hearing in Washington, D.C., June 9, 2016. (Ron Kampeas)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two delegates to the Democratic Party’s platform drafting committee — one appointed by Hillary Clinton and the other by Bernie Sanders — said the platform must reflect the hardships faced both by Israelis and Palestinians.
“Israelis today live in fear of acts of terror that can turn peaceful marketplaces and neighborhoods into scenes of violence and horror,” said the statement released Thursday by Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., appointed by Sanders and Clinton, respectively. “Palestinians struggle under an unjust occupation that deprives them of the rights, opportunities and independence that they deserve. That is the reality of a conflict that has gone on for far too long and at a terrible cost.”
The statement was released by J Street, the liberal Middle East policy group that favors including language sympathetic to Palestinians and Israelis in the platform. The political action committee affiliated with J Street has endorsed both Ellison and Gutierrez for reelection.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Trump vows to nix ban on religious nonprofits endorsing candidates
Presumptive Republican nominee says it may be his ‘greatest contribution to Christianity — and other religions’
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump told conservative Christians he would work to remove restrictions on churches endorsing political candidates.
“I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity — and other religions — is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it,” Trump told the group of conservative Christian leaders on Tuesday.
Speaking at his corporate headquarters in New York, the real estate magnate and presumptive Republican presidential nominee told the group that restrictions placed in the 1960s on explicit political endorsement by tax-exempt groups inhibited free speech.
“It’s taken a lot of power away from Christianity and other religions,” he said in an audio recording obtained by the Washington Post.
A number of major Jewish groups, led particularly by the Reform movement, oppose direct political participation in the political process, arguing that it breaches church-state separation. Conservatives deride the restrictions, saying they are more often ignored than observed, noting as an example get-out-the-vote drives in black churches, where Democrats are favored.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Trump blames Clinton for Iranian regional ‘dominance’
Indicating Mideast to play major role in presidential campaign, likely GOP nominee says Democratic rival put Tehran ‘on road to nuclear weapons’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump said Iran is the dominant Islamic power in the Middle East and is on the road to nuclear weapons because of Hillary Clinton, a signal that Israel and Middle East policy will be at the forefront of an increasingly bitter campaign.
The Israel and Iran citations in the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s major speech on Wednesday echoed similar attacks by Clinton on Trump two weeks ago.
Like two recent Clinton speeches, Trump’s speech was more about defining his opponent as unviable than about advancing his own policies — and like Clinton, he said he would be better for Israel.
He said Clinton was corrupted by donations from the Muslim and Arab world to her husband’s charitable foundation, although at least one instance he cited as a gift to Clinton – $58,000 in jewelry from Brunei – was, according to the New York Times, a gift to the State Department and not for Clinton’s use.
Describing the world in 2009 at the outset of Barack Obama’s presidency and Clinton’s stint as secretary of state, he said: “Iran was being choked by sanctions.” Now, he said, “Thanks to Hillary Clinton, Iran is now the dominant Islamic power in the Middle East, and on the road to nuclear weapons.”
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
In Israel, Ivanka Trump may not be considered Jewish
Local rabbinical court rejects conversion conducted by the rabbi who wed GOP candidate’s daughter in 2009
The Israeli Chief Rabbinate cuts slack to no one, not even if you are the daughter of a man who may become the next president of the United States.
The issue of the rabbinate’s notoriously difficult conditions for recognizing Jewish conversions performed abroad was back in the spotlight this week after the religious body rejected the Jewish status of a woman whose conversion was authorized by the same rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump, daughter of presumptive Republican nominee for the US presidency, and who officiated at her wedding to Jared Kushner in 2009.
Trump had completed her Orthodox conversion to Judaism that same year, under the direction of Haskel Lookstein, a revered modern Orthodox rabbi in New York and leader for the past 58 years of Manhattan’s Congregation Kehilat Jeshurun, which has over 6,000 members, among them Trump and Kushner.
An American woman, who had an Orthodox conversion in New York with Lookstein and was engaged to an Israeli man, had her status rejected as a Jew by the local rabbinical court in her fiance’s hometown of Petah Tikva in Israel after the two tried to register for marriage.
The case raises the question of whether the rabbinate would recognize the conversion of Trump, who in a Vogue interview last year said she and her family were “pretty observant,” keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
US Democrats end marathon gun control sit-in
Vitalized by surge of public support, Democrats vow to return after two-week recess with renewed vigor
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic lawmakers pushing for tougher US gun control laws after the Orlando nightclub massacre ended a stunning 24-hour sit-in at Congress on Thursday.
But they vowed to return with renewed vigor when the legislature comes back from a two-week recess on July 5, and said they had mustered much popular support for their cause in a country with an epidemic of gun violence.
“We are going to leave here. We are going out down the steps to greet the people outside. American people are with us and people around the world are with us,” sit-in leader John Lewis, a longtime congressman and veteran of the civil rights movement who marched with Martin Luther King, told reporters.
“We must never give up or give in. We must keep the faith and we must come back here on July 5 more determined than ever before,” Lewis said, flanked by lawmakers including House minority leader Nancy Pelosi.
House members led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and James Clyburn (D-SC), walk down the East Front of the U.S. Capitol building to speak with supporters on June 23, 2016. (Allison Shelley/Getty Images/AFP)
