1: In The United Kingdom – Mark Warwick (former police detective in charge) announces that the UK investigation into war crimes committed in Iraq by British troops after their 2003 U.S. led invasion is only expected to be completed by 2019. British troops withdrew from Iraq in 2009. The UK's multimillion-pound inquiry had reached 1,515 possible victims by September 2015, of whom 280 are alleged to have been unlawfully killed, such as Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died after being interrogated and abused by soldiers.
• Campaigners have pushed for the pace of probe to be speeded up, with its budget set at £57.2 million, which runs until the end of 2019 – 16 years after the invasion began.

Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court reported in February 2006 that he had received 240 communications in connection with the March 2003 invasion of Iraq in which it is alleged that various war crimes had been committed, regarding –

(a) the targeting of civilians or clearly excessive attacks; and (b) wilful killing or inhumane treatment of civilians.

• This would include the American shooting and bombing of a wedding party in Mukaradeeb, a small village in Iraq near the border with Syria, on 19 May 2004, in which 42 civilians were killed. In the aftermath of this bombing, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt (coalition deputy chief of staff for U.S. operations in Iraq) said —

court-imposed gag order. in place for months is lifted Sunday, allowing for the first time the publication of the chief suspect’s name.

Israeli security chiefs and politicians have warned that dozens of far-right Orthodox Jewish extremists – allegedly behind a series of anti-Palestinian hate crimes, including the murder of this Dawabsha family – are seeking to destroy the State of Israel, and replace it with

a religious Jewish monarchy.

In the USA – Ukrainian social media users call for a boycott of Coca-Cola after it posts a festive map of Russia that includes Crimea. The company originally posted a map that excluded the annexed peninsula, but backtracked when it received protest from Russians. It quickly republished the photo to include Crimea, only for Ukrainians to threaten to boycott the company.

Coca-Cola has removed the image altogether and apologised.

– According to the Institute for National Memory’s director Vladimir Vyatrovich, 943 towns, villages or settlements in Ukraine currently carry the name of a figure on the list for removal and, in accordance with decommunization laws, will be renamed by the end of 2016. Vyatrovich says that Ukraine had already removed over 800 statues of Lenin as part of the same process, but noted that Kiev was not endorsing wanton destruction of its Soviet past: "The decommunization law has allowed for the possibility that, should anything have artistic value, it is taken down and displayed in a museum. We can show our Soviet past in specialised museums and parks but

we can not make it so the Soviet past lives among us, because it would deform us."

– YOSSI COHEN יוסי כהן‎ (54) becomes the new Mossad chief (previous secret service chief 2011-2015 was Tamir Pardo תמיר פרדו‎) and at his inauguartion warns that Iran's nuclear prgram is a major threat. But he was reported in 2015 to have told a closed meeting that the conflict with the Palestinians posed a greater threat to Israel than did Iran. (His permaturely born son is Captain Yonatan Cohen, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound, who cannot walk, write, or read as he is legally blind, and formerly an officer in the 8200 unit in the Israeli Intelligence Corps and is now a team commander at the IDF Spokesperson's Office).

– The availability of electric light in the hospital emergency room often determines whether a patient lives or dies. This besieged Palestinian territory has been suffering from a chronic power deficit for years amid Israel's blockade – a situation that worsened after the 2014 Israeli assault, which destroyed Gaza's only power plant. Even before the war, Israeli-supplied electricity to Gaza met less than half of the territory's estimated needs. Outages can last for more than 16 hours a day, and when it is available, power comes in sporadic, five to eight-hour intervals. Two hospitals in Gaza, al-Shifa and Nasser, already use solar energy to run their intensive care units, and so Islamic Relief Canada has donated $1.5m, which will help fund six major hospitals in total, including al-Aqsa where construction of solar panels will start this month, and by June 2017 the panels should be installed in four hospitals.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is supporting the Empower Gaza project by transporting batteries and panels into Gaza from Israel. The UNDP has also installed solar panels in schools, healthcare clinics and water facilities in support of the Palestinian Solar Initiative, which aims to meet 30% of energy demands in the blockaded coastal enclave with renewable sources by 2020.

In Ukraine – Christmas is celebrated in terms of the Julian calender (introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, traditionally followed by the Orthodox Church) as Putin's military support for the dictatorial regime of Assad in Syria temporarily takes pressure off Ukraine.

Russia expresses outrage at the Finnish decision to extradite two of its citizens, Maxim Senakh and Alexander Sergeyev, to the United States for cyber-crimes of hacking into American computers and installing malicious software.

The Wall Street Journal reports that malicious software was installed on servers to obtain millions of dollars in commission payments.

Vladimirovich Putin’s praise of Donald Trump as "a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented" has been reciprocated by Trump’s calling Putin "a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond" that they "would get along very well." Trump has shrugged off warnings of Putin’s perfidy by citing lack of 'proof' that Putin "kills journalists, political opponents and …invades countries."

Only the naïve would not know there will be no such proof, when the Kremlin controls prosecution, justice and the secret police.

has deployed the S-400 advanced air defence system in Syria and ordered jets taking part in operations near the Turkish border armed with live air-to-air missiles for self-protection. Russia is thought to have no more than 40 Su-35 fighters in frontline service, so the deployment of four aircraft with crews to Syria is also a fairly substantial undertaking for a Russian military which is struggling to modernise in the face of economic recession and very low oil prices.

In Moldova – Huge anti-government demonstartions break out and the situation appears ripe for an attempt by the Kremlin to exert its influence in the region. Moldova even has a statelet, the mainly Russian-speaking separatist Transdniestria, on its eastern border that is closely linked to Moscow. Earlier this month, a new prime minister, Pavel Filip, was suddenly sworn in at midnight – following months of political deadlock – without any media presence, triggering an attempt by demonstrators to storm the parliament building.

3: In Israel – Evidence is discovered that the Israeli government is sending unwanted African migrants to other countries under secretive deals with other countries such as Rwanda and Uganda, which may be in breach of international law, for the African deportees are being given the choice of go to an African country or face indefinite detention.

In Auckland, New Zealand – The Trans-Pacific Partnership – an agreement involving 12 economies worth about $28 trillion – is signed by ministers from the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas, to cut tariffs, improve access to markets and set common ground on labour and environmental standards and intellectual property protections – which had been reached in October 2015 after five years of negotiations. The partnership comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.

In Tafas, Syria – A field hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is bombed, killing three people and injuring six others including a nurse, by pro-Assad forces backed by Russian airstrikes.

April 5: In Israel – For almost a decade Israel has played host to the activity of an online trading industry, a great deal of it fraudulent, that has fleeced hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions, from hundreds of thousands of customers globally, while Israeli authorities have opted to look the other way. Now international lawyer Gabriele Giambrone sends a letter to Israel’s Justice Ministry informing it that his firm represents 2,500 clients allegedly defrauded by binary options and forex companies operating out of Israel –

"The Israeli regulatory and enforcement authorities have so far failed to take any action
despite the widespread knowledge of where these companies are based,
which offices they are operating from, and who are the individuals behind it.
It appears that none of the regulators are interested, so investor protection falls down the chasm between the net".

In October 2015 at least four hospitals had been bombed by fighter jets in north-western Syria since Russia’s intervention in the war began in late September.

• In Maaret al-Numan, Idlib province, Syria – Russian Federation bombing in support of the Assad dictatorial regime destroys a hospital of Médecins Sans Frontières, killing at least seven. (Ruusia denies the eye-witness reports)
• In Azaz, Syria, near the Turkish border, missiles fired by Assad regime forces, supported by Russia, strike a children’s hospital and a school killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 30.

The victims have accused Russia of using cluster bombs in its attacks of civilian/'terrorist' areas.

Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that has been tracking attacks on health care workers and infrastructure amid the Syrian conflict, says that 697 health care workers have been killed in 336 attacks on medical sites,

the vast majority carried out by the Syrian government and its allies.

Syria – Turkey continues to back the Syrian rebels against the dictatorial Syrian government's troops which are being supported by Russian bombing.

On Woody Island in the South China Sea – Two missile batteries of HQ-9 surface-to-air launchers, as well as supporting vehicles, such as an engagement radar and the Type 305B AESA acquisition radar are installed.

The Chinese military move air defense batteries, and cables, connecting vehicles and equipment into a single networked system.

In Turkey – Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu angrily condemns Russia for promoting terrorism through its support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. and Russia announce that a planned cessation of hostilities in Syria will come into effect from 27 February.

Their statement says the truce does not include the so-called Islamic State (ISIL/Daesh) or the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Russia announces that it has set up a joint air defence system with Belarus. It does create an opportunity that Russia could exploit if relations with NATO and the West deteriorate further. Military cooperation with Russia is close, and joint exercises and other joint events are normal. Russia's major Zapad manoeuvres, for instance, ordinarily include Belarusian troops, as well as regular smaller exercises taking place in both countries. In May, Belarusian paratroopers are scheduled to join their Russian counterparts jumping at the North Pole. Belarus has resisted Russian attempts to take over provision of its security. When Belarus needed to purchase modern fighter aircraft to upgrade its ageing air force, Moscow announced instead that Belarus would be hosting a Russian airbase.

President Lukashenko faced down pressure from Russia, and successfully insisted on the aircraft purchase.

Midnight in Syria – The landmark UN-backed temporary ceasefire comes into effect, as a special task force led by rivals Moscow and Washington prepares to begin monitoring the fledgling truce. On the stroke of midnight, firing stops in suburbs around Damascus and the devastated northern city of Aleppo, after a day of intense Assad-supporting Russian air strikes on rebel bastions across the country. This is the first major temporary truce in Syria's five-year civil war.

government issues instructions to allow Gaza Strip's residents to travel out of Gaza, via the King Hussein Bridge (Allenby Bridge), between the West Bank and the Kingdom of Jordan, on two conditions:

• travelers from the Gaza Strip must gain Jordan's permission to enter, and
• they must stay abroad for one year before they will be allowed to re-enter their home in the Gaza Strip.

Friday 4: In Israel – The Israeli Welfare Ministry releases a study which finds approximately 12,000 Jewish women in Israel work as prostitutes, of which 62% are mothers, 11% are minors; 52% born in the Former Soviet Union;

prostitution is 'officially' illegal in Israel, it remains an industry valued at some NIS 1.2 billion annually, of which 43% is made in “discrete apartments” where customers who are in the know visit a particular prostitute regularly.

– Jānis Sārts, director of NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, based in Riga, informs that Russia has a track record of funding extremist forces in Europe, and that he believes there is now evidence of Russia agitating in Germany against Merkel. Sārts, who has access to intelligence briefings, added –

In Syria – Although the truce still holds Russian bombing of 'rebel' areas and the killing of civilians continues. Russia claims that intelligence supplied by the Syrian army identifies its bombing targets and that therefore it is 'not responsible' for the consequent multiple killing of civilians.

Putin begins to pull back many of his military from Syria (in a much advertised move), BUT his bombing raids and his military and naval bases in Syria – continue.

Israel – The Tel Aviv Regional Rabbinical Court sentences a Jewish-American man to 30 days in prison for being the influence behind his son’s refusal to grant his wife a Jewish writ of divorce.

In The Hague, Netherlands – Palestine is awarded full membership in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, after 57 countries vote in favour, 24 abstain and zero vote against. This is only after the Palestinian Foreign Ministry sends a strong letter to its Dutch counterpart, demanding that the government of The Netherlands, which houses the court at The Hague, revoke its decision to suspend the application, and threatens to take the case to specialized international courts.

3AM, in Duma, West Bank, Palestine – Jewish Settlers torch the home of Ibrahim Dawabsha because he is a key witness in the trial of two Jewish Israelis suspected of killing three members of a nearby Palestinian family in a fire-bomb attack last year. His home is located less than 10 yards from the home that was burned down by Jewish Settlers in July 2015. Local residents say that the attack on his home seems to be an attempt to kill or intimidate him. He escaped unhurt, but his wife suffered smoke inhalation problems.

Israel – The ultra-Orthodox Jews have gone from being a tiny minority in Israel's mostly secular society to now its fastest-growing sector. They are exempt from military duty, but draft deferments and state subsidies for the ultra-Orthodox have become a divisive political issue in Israel. While the international community keeps trying to end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, many Orthodox Israelis reject not only Arabs but all also other Jews.

In Hebron, Palestine – Another Palestinian, shot under pretext of an attempted stabbing, is executed by Israeli soldiers as he lies wounded and helpless on the ground.
• Encouraged by fascist Rabbis, over 200 Palestinians have been executed this way since October 2015.
For instance Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said, "We must not allow a Palestinian to survive after he was{?} arrested.

If you leave him alive, he will be released and kill other people. We must eradicate this evil from within our midst."

• Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg had said (26 April, 1996, reported in Jewish Week)

In the U.S. – The national director Jonathan Greenblatt of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (a US-based group that fights bigotry) urges the Republican front-runner Donald J Trump to stop using xenophobic rhetoric against Muslims and Mexicans,

and to decisively distance himself and his campaign from white supremacist and other radical supporters.

Thursday: In Moscow – Russia's secret service (FSB) claims to have arrested a Ukrainian who was trained by America's CIA as a spy: Lieutenant Colonel Yuriy Ivanchenko, a counter-intelligence officer for Ukraine’s Security Services (SBU).

the USA – The Podesta Group registers with the U.S. Government as a lobbyist for Russia's Sberbank ('Savings Bank' in Russian) to help its public image and specifically to help lift some of the pain of sanctions placed on Russia in the aftermath of the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine, which has caused real pain to the country’s hard-hit financial sector.

West has underestimated Russia and must expect further foreign policy adventures from Moscow, be it in Eastern Europe or in its already tense relationship with Turkey. Putin needs these adventures in order to maintain his popularity, even though his own people are becoming poorer. If the West wants to avoid being outmaneuvered again in future conflicts, it cannot allow itself to be intimidated – and neither can it strive for appeasement."

"The West must counter these attacks on the world order in a united way." (Mathieu von Rohr)

In Israel – The scandal on the segregation of Jewish women and Arab women in Israeli hospitals now succeeds in breaking the long-held public silence on racism and discrimination.

dropping investigation was by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 media organizations and more than 370 journalists around the globe, who analysed more than 11.5 million documents. The investigation is likely the biggest leak of information in history. The so-called "Panama Papers" show how the law firm, Mossack Fonseca, handled the assets of many heads of state who are accused of laundering money, evading tax, and avoiding sanctions, according the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who obtained the 11m documents. Mossack Fonseca moved its business to Panama from the Virgin Islands following a 'crackdown' on bearer shares (equity certificates that do not include the name of the bearer/owner) by the British Virgin Islands in 2005.On 9 May at 8pm SAST, (not quite) all will be revealed.

"The database will not include records of bank accounts and financial transactions, emails and other correspondence, passports and telephone numbers. The selected and limited information is being published in the public interest."

2017, Police in Panama arrest the founders of Mossack Fonseca (Ramón Fonseca and Jürgen Mossack), the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, on money laundering charges after authorities raided the firm’s headquarters as part of investigations into Brazil’s largest-ever bribery scandal. "The documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) are related to the creation and sale of offshore companies by the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca," the document from the attorney general’s office said. The companies were "allegedly used for laundering millions of dollars from multiple illicit activities around the world."

In Israel – For almost a decade Israel has played host to the activity of an online trading industry, a great deal of it fraudulent, that has fleeced hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions, from hundreds of thousands of customers globally, while Israeli authorities have opted to look the other way. Now international lawyer Gabriele Giambrone sends a letter to Israel’s Justice Ministry informing it that his firm represents 2,500 clients allegedly defrauded by binary options and forex companies operating out of Israel –

"The Israeli regulatory and enforcement authorities have so far failed to take any action
despite the widespread knowledge of where these companies are based,
which offices they are operating from and who are the individuals behind it.
It appears that none of the regulators are interested, so investor protection falls down the chasm between the net".

The ISA alleged in court on November 9 that in addition to defrauding customers, one of the seven arrested, Ido Fishman, the company’s CEO, obstructed and interfered with the regulator’s criminal investigation into the company.

• December 21, 2016: Fred Felix Turbide of Edmonton, Alberta, a devoted husband and father of four who was looking forward to enjoying his retirement with his family, commits suicide after losing over 200,000 Canadian dollars (US$152,000) to an Israeli-run binary options firm. He shot himself in the chest after losing his savings and additional money he borrowed, totaling over C$300,000 (US$228,000), to several binary options trading websites.

He lost some two-thirds of this sum on the 23Traders.com platform, which operates from Israel.

on November 8, 2016, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) carry out a highly unusual raid on the Ramat Gan offices of iTrader, a company that offered binary options and forex trading to the Israeli public, arresting seven of its top managers and salespeople. The ISA accused the seven men of providing investment advice without a license, as well as aggravated fraud, all of which allegedly occurred between May 2013 and May 2016. All seven are released on bail but prohibited from leaving the country for 180 days while the ISA continues to investigate the case.

Tens of thousands of French victims have lost some 4 billion euros to online investment scams based in Israel in the past six years.

Much of the cynical theft originates – and is still flourishing – in Israel. So, French investigators eventually step in.

So eventually in August 2016 Shmuel Hauser, chair of the Israel Securities Authority, says
Israel-based [Russian mafia] industry fleecing victims worldwide is a "problem of national significance";
and vows to gather all arms of law enforcement to tackle it.

In San Salvador, El Salvador – Authorities raid the local offices of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, seizing documents and equipment, probably in reaction to this disclosure of its money-laundering. But, founding partner Ramon Fonseca tells Reuters in Panama this week that his firm, which specializes in setting up offshore companies, had broken no laws and that all its operations were legal.

He also said his firm had never destroyed any documents or helped anyone evade taxes or launder money.

In Israeli Occupied Golan Heights – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing troops, states, for the first time, that Israel has been carrying out military strikes in Syria 'to prevent arms transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon'. The Tel Aviv regime has resorted to an intelligence and psychological campaign against Hezbollah to compensate for its fiascos in the two wars on Lebanon.

In Israel – Prime Minister NETANYAHU with his full cabinet asserts that Israel will not return the Israeli Occupied Syrian Golan Heights to Syria regardless of any Syrian peace-accord –

In the Israeli Occupied West Bank, Palestine – A Jewish terror group including an IDF soldier (19); Itamar Ben Aharon (20); and Michal Kaplan (20), all from the illegal Jewish settlement of Nahliel; along with Pinhas Shandorfi (22), a resident of the settlement of Kiryat Arba, are arrested for terror attacks on sleeping Palestinian families.

In Al-Tireh, Ramallah, Palestine – A 6-metre statue of South Africa's Neson Mandela is unveiled in the newly renamed Nelson Mandela Square, as a gift from the City of Johannesburg in South Africa..
Mandela is often quoted as saying –

Ramallah Mayor Musa Hadeed states that the statue is "a message of freedom and equality to the entire world... Nelson Mandela is seen as a universal symbol of peace who still inspires people across the globe,... This statue holds special importance for the Palestinian people who have continued Mandela's struggle against racism".

In Aleppo, Syria – As a ceasefire, agreed between the opposing sides in the Syrian conflict, continues to collapse, Russian and regime air strikes killed at least 123 civilians, including 18 children, in rebel-held areas in the city in this last week, including bombed hospitals staffed by heroic Doctors without Borders. The al-Quds hospital in Aleppo targeted in Wednesday night's attacks was one of 150 hospitals supported by Doctors Without Borders in Syria.

In the UK – A political crisis continues in its Labour Party, due to the Zionist lobby insisting that anti-Israel comments are 'anti-Semitic', even though the most anti-Israel statements world-wide are from Orthodox Jews.

(So, if the most Jewish Jews are anti-Israel it is ludicrous to think that it is anti-Semitic/anti-Jewish to be anti-Israel,
but this is rather simply part of their racist lobby).

Tuesday: In the US – In an interview with the British Daily Mail, US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says that there should be no pause in [illegal] settlement construction by Israel in the Palestinian West Bank, a position at odds with that of the Obama administration, which in 2009 encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implement a freeze on new construction for 10 months in an effort to restart stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. Israel began building race-based Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank after it captured the territory, hitherto controlled by Jordan, in the Six Day War in 1967.

Today, over 250,000 Jewish Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the Palestinian West Bank.

In Israel – Israeli prosecutors charge (heroic Jewish Christian) nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu with violating the terms of his release, more than a decade after he completed an 18-year jail term, in which for 11-years the light had been kept on in his solitary cell to facilitate mental breakdown. According to this new charge sheet, Vanunu in 2013 met two US nationals in Jerusalem without having permission to do so, and of moving to a different flat in his apartment building in 2014 without informing police.
On 14 July 2011, Vanunu had appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to instruct Interior Minister Eli Yishai to revoke his Israeli citizenship, claiming that "the Israeli street" and media were treating him belligerently (death threats), and that he could "no longer find his place in Israeli society", and that despite his release from prison,

"the State of Israel continues to penalize him by imposing various restrictions on his person and travels."

In Israel – Jewish Prime Minister of Zionist Israel NETANYAHU, holding a grossly misleading graphic of the 'promised land', declares that Iran is preparing to attack 'Israel'.
This same day, near the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus, illegal Israeli Jewish settlers set fire to a Palestinian olive orchard, destroying about 100 trees, to drive Palestinians of the land. However, Lo’ai Manasreh, an anti-Israeli settlement activist, said that he and other Palestinians also saw a group of Israeli settlers when they started the fire in a barley crop in the area. Manasreh reiterated that burning the Palestinian old trees is part of a "pre-planned" effort to damage the Palestinian agriculture sector, noting the other burning incident occurred in Al-Khalil: "In addition to the Israeli plans to damage the agriculture sector, they also want to erase the witnesses of the Palestinian existence represented in these old olive trees," he said.

17: In Syria – The American School of Oriental Research's Cultural Heritage Initiative announces that the Russian military is constructing a new army base in the central Syrian town of Palmyra, within the protected zone that holds the archaeological site listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site, and without asking for permission from the relevant authorities. Assad's Syrian government troops,

backed by Russian air-strikes, captured Palmyra in March 2016 and the fighting continues miles away until this day.

In Russia – Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, is freed by Russia in a prisoner exchange after being condemned by Moscow as a murderer but was rapturously received as a national hero back home. The 35-year-old army helicopter navigator was sentenced by Russia to 22 years in March over the killing of two Russian journalists in the separatist conflict in east Ukraine. After President Vladimir Putin pardoned her (citing the wishes of the journalists' relatives) in exchange for two Russian soldiers convicted of fighting alongside separatists in east Ukraine, she was secretly flown to Kiev in a government plane.

her release she states that "It might be uncomfortable for Europe or even America for some time. But they need to understand that if they don’t stop Russia on the border of Ukraine, next time it will be on the border with Poland or the border with Germany". Ukrainian forces confront separatist rebels – reinforced by regular Russian troops and tanks – in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and Ms Savchenko’s comrades on the frontline are often outgunned and outnumbered.

In Ukraine – The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) receives equipment from NATO for the removal and destruction of Explosive Remnants of War (ERW), including land-mines, artillery, munitions and booby traps in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The equipment is provided through a partnership and cooperation programme between NATO and Ukraine, developed within the framework of the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme, in close cooperation with the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). With a budget of approximately 1 million EUR, the NATO SPS project, called "Support to Humanitarian De-mining in Ukraine", was initiated based on a specific request from Ukraine.

In Tel Aviv, Israel – About 2,000 protesters demonstrate against the appointment of right-wing/fascist Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman as defense minister. The rally, organized by the Joint (Arab) List, the left-wing Meretz party, and the left-wing Peace Now organization, was held under the headline "Building the opposition: A new way for Israel." Liberman’s looming appointment had also prompted the heated resignation of defense minister and former Israel Defense Force chief Moshe Ya’alon, who, in his resignation speech on May 21, warned that –

"extremist and dangerous forces have taken over Israel and the Likud movement
and are destabilizing our home and threatening to harm its inhabitants."

In Russia – Its military announces plans for more than 2,000 air, sea and land military exercises over the summer months. Their programme includes dozens of large-scale military manoeuvres and anti-terror drills, at a time when Nato is also carrying out its own military exercises in eastern Europe. The largest Russian military exercise will be carried out in September in south-west Russia, although the number of troops involved has yet to be announced. It comes as Poland conducts its own large-scale military drill involving Nato members and allies. Poland and the Baltic states fear that Russia could launch an invasion in eastern Europe within "hours", amid an escalation in tensions between NATO and the Kremlin.

In Lausanne, Switzerland – Switzerland’s highest court has orders Israel to pay Iran around $1.1 billion plus interest in a decades-old dispute over a secretive oil pipeline company, Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co (EAPC), a joint venture set up in 1968, when the two nations were friendly, to transport Iranian oil to the Mediterranean. For a decade, the pipeline successfully carried oil from the Red Sea for export to Europe. But since the Islamic revolution that brought the ayatollahs to power, Iran has been demanding its fair share of revenues and assets that have remained in Israel. The countries had formed a straw company in Halifax, Canada called APC Holdings, the primary shareholder in EAPC. By December 1969 the pipeline was ready to handle 60 million tons of crude a year, though it never reached that level.

Lawyers for both countries have declined to comment.

1: In the Russian Federation – President Putin warns that if Finland joins NATO Ruusia may move its troops closer to its border with Russia. In the Black Sea region Romania is particularly concerned about threats to its energy platforms in the Black Sea, as well as about freedom of navigation there and control of the mouth of the Danube. Ukraine’s remaining port, Odessa, is at constant risk. Turkey is now surrounded to the north, south and east by Russian troops in the Crimea, other areas in Ukraine, Syria and the Caucasus.

– President Vladimir Putin turns aside all Israel’s complaints about Russian arms supplies to Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah (حزب الله‎‎ Ḥizbu 'llāh, literally "Party of God), whenever he talks to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – roughly every week-to-ten days.

The issue is also raised without results by Israeli officials on trips to Moscow, including the visit by Yossi Cohen, Director of the Mossad, to the Russian capital on July 1.

Afternoon: South of Hebron, Palestine – Rabbi Miki Mark head of a yeshiva (religious school) in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Otniel, is shot dead by attackers in his car which overturns on Route 60.

Mark’s wife is seriously injured and his son Pedaya’s 14-year-old sister Shira Mark-Harif suffers moderate-to-serious wounds.
Pedaya, 15, is lightly injured.

Pedaya reports that Palestinian passersby helped the surviving family members escape their overturned vehicle,

His mother survives – thanks in part to a Palestinian doctor (urologist Ali Shroukh) who stopped to help.

Nations – The Middle East Quartet (MEQ) – comprising the UN, Russia, the United States and the European Union – calls on each side to "independently demonstrate, through policies and actions, a genuine commitment to the two-state solution" and to "refrain from unilateral steps that prejudice the outcome of the final negotiations." Among other, the MEQ recommends –
• The Palestinian Authority should act decisively and take all steps within its capacity to cease incitement to violence and strengthen ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, including by clearly condemning all acts of terrorism.
• Israel should cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, designating land for exclusive Israeli use, and denying Palestinian development.
• Israel should implement positive and significant policy shifts, including transferring powers and responsibilities in Area C, consistent with the transition to greater Palestinian civil authority contemplated by prior agreements. Progress in the areas of housing, water, energy, communications, agriculture, and natural resources, along with significantly easing Palestinian movement restrictions, can be made while respecting Israel's legitimate security needs.
• The Palestinian leadership should continue their efforts to strengthen institutions, improve governance, and develop a sustainable economy. Israel should take all necessary steps to enable this process, in line with the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee recommendations.
• All sides must continue to respect the ceasefire in Gaza, and the illicit arms buildup and militant activities must be terminated.
In addition to these recommendations, the ME Quartet encourages the international community to accelerate its efforts to address the "dire" humanitarian, reconstruction and recovery needs of the people in Gaza,

including expediting the disbursement of assistance pledges.

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process is Nickolay Mladenov.

In Israel – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman approve construction plans for some 800 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim Jewish settlement, as well as hundreds of new Jewish homes for an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. According to the plan, 560 new units will be built in Ma’ale Adumim, a Jewish West Bank settlement to the east of the capital, 140 homes were approved for the Jewish East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ramot and 100 for the Har Homa neighbourhood, in south-eastern Jerusalem.

Palestine – After blockading the Hebron area in collective punishment for the knife attacks by Palestinian residents on Israeli settlers, the Israeli government is now pushing forward with a plan to funnel some NIS 50 million ($12.8 million) to illegal Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron and nearby Kiryat Arba. On Sunday night, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman approved hundreds of new Jewish housing units in Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem in answer to the terror attacks.

Archaeologists digging at the southern coastal city of Ashkelon announce the discovery of the first ever cemetery belonging to the ancient Philistines, the ancient Israelites’ dreaded enemy. The Philistine settlement on the coast of Palestine developed from Minoan refugees after ancient Minos/Crete was destroyed by a terrible tsunami about 1610 BC/BCE. It is referred to as Caphtor in Holy Scripture (Deuteronomy 2:23; Amos 9:7). Ashkelon was one of the five main Philistine cities for six centuries, along with Gaza, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron — from the 1100s BC/BCE down to Ashkelon’s destruction by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar’s army in 604 BC/BCE. Canaanites and Israelites, by comparison buried their dead in cave tombs, then collected the bones after the flesh had decomposed. Philistine dead, once buried were not disturbed, indicating the group held different cultural ideas about what death meant and what the afterlife meant.

In Warsaw, Poland – NATO concludes its summit with a decision to bolster its arms build-up with four battalion-sized NATO-"Battle Groups" deployed in Poland and the Baltic countries – only one under German command. NATO will also support Ukraine's armed forces and reinforce its presence on the Black Sea. NATO identified a "Suwalki Gap" between north-eastern Poland and southern Lithuania as an alleged gateway for Russian troops to Kaliningrad through Belarus, against which, NATO would be "helpless." However, statistics show that the NATO alliance invests thirteen times more than Russia in its military.

In the Russian Federation – It is reported that as many as 50 senior officers, including Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk have been purged by President Vladimir Putin, amid reports they refused to confront Western ships. Some speculate that the 'buzzing' of USS Donald Cook by Russian Su-24 fighter-bombers on April 14, 2016, and the apparent refusal to follow such dangerous orders – is behind Putin’s retaliation against his own naval officers in the region.

the USA – The State Department accuses Israel of systematically seizing Palestinian land after the Jewish state approves the construction of 800 new Jewish housing units in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem.

China Sea – The United States, without either, any relative treaty obligation, or necessary strategic defence interest in the area, adopts a provocative stance regarding China's claim to islands in the South China Sea region. The former Director of US National Intelligence and retired Navy admiral Dennis Blair told a Congressional panel on Wednesday 13 July that the United States should be prepared to use military force to oppose Chinese 'aggression' in the South China Sea.

The admiral’s recommendation came the day after a United Nations tribunal invalidated China’s claim of territorial rights to nearly all of the waters in the South China Sea. The U.S., citing the territorial dispute and security concerns raised by its allies in the region, has for months been sending warships into the South China Sea as a check against Chinese hostility (as though its satellite surveillance was not enough). Beijing, acutely aware of the US military build-up off its coast, has publicly warned the U.S. it’s more than ready to defend itself against provocations –

In response to the United States' B-52 bomber ‘freedom-of-navigation’ flights over the contested waterway in recent months, along with flights by US surveillance and patrol aircraft, Beijing sends a nuclear capable H-6K bomber over Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Friday 15 July – in an escalation of the US military confrontation.

In Turkey – Both bridges across the Bosphorus strait (between Anatolia and Europe) are closed, and all flights from Ankara airport are cancelled, due to an attempted military coup. Turkish soldiers have reportedly raided Istanbul Police Department headquarters, requesting the policemen handover their weapons. The current situation inside the building is not clear as yet. The attempted takeover was incited by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen living in exile in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, in the US (who heads the Hizmet movement). A military helicopter fired on a headquarters building of Turkey's special forces police in Ankara, killing 17 police officers, according to the Andolu Agency, and a Turkish military F-16 shot a Sikorsky helicopter out of the sky, according to the same agency.
There have been three successful coups in Turkey, a NATO ally, since 1960, and in 1997 the military carried out a "soft" coup, issuing directives to the Turkish government that it was forced to accept. The military has cast itself as the traditional 'protector' of secular, democratic rule. There have been mass surrenders in Istanbul, with around 50 soldiers on Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul abandoning their tanks with their hands raised.

authorities say they regained control of the country on Saturday after thwarting an attempt by discontented soldiers to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that claimed more than 250 lives. After the bloodiest challenge to his 13-year autocratic rule, Erdogan urged his backers/supporters to stay on the streets to prevent a possible “flare-up” of Friday’s chaos in this strategic NATO member of 80 million people:

with at least 2,839 soldiers are already detained in a relentless round-up over the coup plot.

A Turkish airbase used by the USA to launch attacks on ISIS/ISIL and store nukes is reportedly currently under lock-down in revenge for America harbouring the alleged "coup mastermind".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the US to extradite Fethullah Gülen to Turkey.

In Israel – The Israeli Police are investigating donations of money and gifts by foreign business-people to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family members.

The current trial of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, accused of unnecessarily shooting to death in Hebron a wounded Palestinian assailant on the ground, brings the spotlight on the many similar cases where IDF soldiers have shot Palestinians who did not threaten their lives.

During a trip to Manila, the Philippines, US Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington wants to avoid "confrontation" in the disputed South China Sea region and help resolve the issue peacefully –

In Russian-annexed Crimea – The Russian military plan to send to the city of Feodosia "a full regiment" of its most advanced air defence system, the S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system, according to Lt. Col. Evgeny Oleinikov, deputy commander of the 18th missile air defence regiment of the 31 air defence division.
The system is designed to target stealth aircraft, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles with a range of about 250 miles (400 kilometres). While the S-400 is the longest-range Surface to Air Missile in the world, it won’t be the only Russian air defence system in Crimea, which Russia annexed from the Ukraine in 2014.

The Russian military has already deployed the S-300 to the region.

In July 2014, pro-Russian separatists (Colonel Igor Girkin) used the older Buk surface-to-air missile system (SA-11) to shoot down the commercial airliner Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, killing all 298 people on board.

It is not clear how many S-400 launch vehicles will be deployed. A battalion reportedly includes six such launch vehicles.

The Russian military will also deploy its newest long-range radar in both the Baltic and the Black Seas by 2017 to monitor NATO operations. These radar systems are capable of monitoring warships and aircraft to the horizon, up to a distance of about 450km (280 miles). The Podsolnukh (Russian for “Sunflower”) over-the-horizon radar is designed to detect, track and classify up to 300 sea and 100 aerial targets in automated mode.

Three Podsolnukh stations are currently operational in Russia’s Far East and the Caspian Sea.

In Ukraine – The press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation Headquarters, reports that combined Russian-separatist forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in eastern Ukraine 71 times in the past 24 hours,

In Ukraine – Vadym Skibitskyi, of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Department of their Defence Ministry, announces that Russia has deployed nuclear weapons carriers in Crimea:

the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based think tank, says that a "deluge of photographs and videos" had appeared online since August 7 that indicate a "mass mobilization" of Russian military equipment throughout Crimea.

It said the deployments include the movement of truck-mounted Bastion-P coastal missile-defense systems.

Russia has already deployed its advanced surface to air S-400 missiles system to Crimea.

In Athens, Greece – Greece’s Culture Ministry announces that the skeleton, apparently of an adolescent boy, has been found in the heart of the 30-meter (100-foot) broad ash altar, next to a man-made stone platform, on Mount Lykaion, indicating human sacrifice at a site that had been regarded as the birth place of the Greek god Zeus. According to legend, a boy was sacrificed with the animals and all the meat was cooked and eaten together. Whoever ate the human part 'would become a wolf for nine years'. This mountaintop in the Peloponnese region is the earliest known site where Zeus was worshipped, and even without human sacrifice it was a place of massive slaughter. From at least the 16th century BC/BCE until just after the time of Alexander the Great, tens of thousands of animals were killed there in this god’s honour.

In Israel – The US Republican Party begins a presidential campaign to have Donald Trump elected which targets the 300,000 expatriate Americans with voting rights who live in Israel. The efforts focus on cities with concentrations of people holding American citizenship, such as: Jerusalem, Modiin, Ra’anana, Beit Shemesh, the Etzion Bloc settlements, Haifa and Beersheba. As part of their campaign,

the Republicans set up public information stands in the shopping centers of these cities to disseminate US campaign messages.

The US military identify eight staging areas in Russia (stretching from Yelnya, near Smolensk and northeast of Ukraine, southward through Rostov—a city located very close to eastern Ukraine) where large numbers of military forces appear to be preparing for incursions into Ukraine, according to U.S. defence officials. As many as 40,000 Russian troops, including tanks, armoured vehicles, and air force units, are now arrayed along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia. Similar large-scale Russian exercises were conducted near Ukraine a month before Moscow carried out the covert military operation to take over the strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March 2014.
Kyiv officials argue Russia's leader is accumulating pretexts to justify a major assault with the aim of securing a land route through Ukraine's southeast regions to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed weeks after the 2014 ouster of Putin's ally Viktor Yanukovych.

Syria – The Syrian and Russian governments have both been accused of using thermobaric bombs against 'rebel' forces. Compelling evidence supports the claims of devastating consequences for nearby civilians. Thermobaric bombs use different combinations of heat and pressure to produce different high explosive effects. An initial explosion produces a pressure wave powerful enough to flatten buildings or penetrate into cave or other structures. At the same time, the explosion will disperse highly flammable fuel particles around its vicinity. These, often aluminium-based, particles ignite a fraction of a second later and burn at very high temperatures. The two blasts combine for maximum effect. They use up all the oxygen in the surrounding air, creating a vacuum — hence "vacuum bomb".

The resulting vacuum can be powerful enough to rupture the lungs and eardrums of anyone nearby.

Russia – A judge finds Russian Baptist Pastor Ossewaarde guilty of 'illegal missionary work' and fines him 40,000 rubles (about $600). For Ossewaarde, a fluent Russian speaker who has lived in Oryol, Russia, since 2002, the court’s ruling was shocking. “We had been perfectly free all these years to give out literature, to talk to people on the street,” he says. “People have either been friendly or indifferent.”
Two days after his conviction, he receives a warning from his court-imposed lawyer, Andrey Butenko; if he and his wife choose to stay in Russia, the lawyer said, they could be in danger. Concerned that Butenko’s warning was an indirect message from the authorities, his wife Ruth Ossewaarde flies to the United States on August 22, but Donald Ossewaarde remains in Oryol to appeal his conviction (September 19).

In Gaza, Palestine – Late Sunday night, the Israel Air Force carries out 50 airstrikes within two hours against 'Hamas targets' in the Gaza Strip, following a rocket fired into Israel from Gazaa. This was the second Israeli bombardment of the day. Immediately following the rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon, Israeli aircraft and tanks had targeted Hamas installations in the northern Gaza Strip.

Russia begins large-scale military exercises on land and in the Black and Caspian seas, increasing worries in Ukraine and other East European neighbours about Moscow's intentions. The Russian Defense Ministry says that troops have been put on combat alert as part of the drills, which were taking place in military districts that encompass Crimea and Russian regions bordering Ukraine and regions bordering the three Baltic nations, all of which are NATO members. The ministry says the military drills will last until the end of the month and involve a variety of units, from paratroopers to Northern Fleet naval ships.

It also said foreign military attachés posted in Moscow had been notified of the exercises after they began.

In Russia – Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu states that –

to establish a unified system of coastal defence stretching from the Arctic in the north to the Primorye Territory in the south.

1: In Launch Complex 40, Florida, USA – The SpaceX rocket that was to lift the large Israeli satellite Amos-6 into orbit to provide internet connectivity in Africa explodes as the rocket is being fuelled, destroying the satellite.

Friday: In Israel – Bowing to pressure from the Jewish ultra-Orthodox partners in the governing coalition, Prime Minister Netanyahu orders railway maintenance suspended on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, without giving due notice. As a consequence, a section of rail track north of Tel Aviv that had been dismantled for repair could not be attended to, and so most services on Sunday (4 September) were stopped, leaving thousands of commuters stranded, including Israel soldiers returning to base, as people scrambled for seats on replacement buses.

Netanyahu, dishonestly, blames his minister of transport, a political rival.

Russia begins a six-day large scale military exercise codenamed Caucasus 2016 to test Russian troops’ combat readiness and cooperation between different branches of the country’s armed forces involving over 12,500 servicemen, including Navy, Airborne and Aerospace units, in Crimea on Ukraine’s border, and will feature cooperative efforts of the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian Sea Flotilla.

This follows a period of heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine
after Moscow accused Kiev of sending saboteurs into the Crimean Peninsula to carry out terror attacks.

Russia and America conclude a ceasefire agreement regarding Syria which is to begin at sundown on Monday 12 September (coinciding with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha). America expects Russia to pressure the Syrian Assad regime to "to stop this conflict and to come to he table and make peace" (John Kerry for the USA). The agreed cease-fire is to hold for seven consecutive days so the UN is able to deliver aid to besieged people in Aleppo,
then the US and Russia will establish "a joint implementation centre" that will organise joint military targeting by American and Russian aircraft directed against ISIS/ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qa'eda, which has now relabelled itself (with al-Qa'eda publicly assenting to a break with its affiliate) as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
The U.N. Security Council is due to hold a session devoted to Syria on September 21, part of the General Assembly’s meeting.

Some experts doubt the cease-fire will hold up even until then.

In Syria – The aid convoy of Red Crescent and United Nations taking food, water, clothes and medicine, to the starving residents of besieged city Aleppo is bombed by two Russian jets at night on an unlit road on the western outskirts of Aleppo – 18 of 31 trucks are destroyed, along with a nearby depot that was to receive the food supplies, killing 31 volunteer aid-workers.

The six-year civil war in Syria has now claimed around 400,000 lives

– Christians in the Palestinian West Bank now total about 50,000, and about 150,000 Arab citizens of the Zionist state of Israel presently identify themselves as Christians.

Christians have represented the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) around the world, such as Manuel Hassassian, the head of the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom, and Naim Khader, the PLO representative to Belgium who was assassinated in 1981 by the Abu Nidal Organization.

municipal law, Palestinian Christians are guaranteed the post of mayor in the birthplace of Jesus (Bethlehem) and in Ramallah.
Some leading institutions of higher learning (Birzeit and Bethlehem universities), schools (Friends School and the Mutran school for boys) and hospitals (St. Joseph’s and the Augusta Victoria), among others, were established or are run by Palestinian Christians. The leading Christians in the Palestinian leadership today are PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi and presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

Internationally – under pressure from the Israeli government, Facebook submits and agrees to suspend more than ten accounts of admins and editors of the two biggest Palestinian news media pages, having already deleted them, without previous notice or warning, including Shehab News Agency and Al-Quds News Network.

At the present moment the fastest growing Christian community world-wide is in Iran.

In Aleppo, Syria – The Syrian regime supported by Russia carry out attacks on two hospitals (M10 and M2), staffed by Medecins Sans Frontiers volunteers, and civilian areas, using among other barrel-bombs.
The Directorate of Health in east Aleppo states that those hospitals still functional are reported as receiving more than 822 wounded between 21 and 26 September, including at least 221 children, and more than 278 dead bodies of which at least 96 were children.

1: In Moscow, Russian Federation – on the eve of the Jewish New Year holiday, Rosh Hashanah, a synagogue security guard is injured with a gas-pistol after a 40-year-old man tries to force his way into the synagogue with a can of gasoline. The man is arrested.

8: The British government approves £283m of arms sales to Saudi Arabia in the six months after a Saudi air-strike on a funeral kills scores of people and was criticised by the UN, figures reveal.
The air-strike hit a funeral hall in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, killing 140 people and injuring hundreds more, in one of the bloodiest attacks in the two-year American backed Saudi-led Sunni campaign against the Houti Shia rebels of Yemen.

In the Russian Federation – Russian Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov announces that Russia will create a permanent naval base at Tartus in Syria (its present naval facility) to expand its military footprint in its closest Middle East ally. A permanent naval base will allow Russia to operate more naval ships in the Mediterranean as they will have an enhanced facility where they can refuel and resupply.

USS Mason detects two inbound missiles over a 60-minute period while in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen.

Both missiles fired impact the water before reaching the US ship.

In August, the US State Department approved the sale of more than 130 Abrams tanks, 20 armored recovery vehicles and other equipment worth about $1.15 billion to Sunni-Muslim Saudi Arabia which leads the attacks on the Shia-Muslim Houthis of Yemen (the majority) who have risen in rebellion against the oppression of their Sunni-led government, and who are accordingly supported by Shia-Muslim Iran.
Since March 2015, at least 4,125 civilians have been killed and 7,207 injured in Yemen.

The number of civilian casualties has risen dramatically since the collapse of the cessation of hostilities agreement in August.

Russia continues its bombing of the civilian areas of Aleppo in Syria, resulting in futher civilian casualties.

ministry warns that Russia has deployed advanced S-300 and S-400 ground-to-air missiles in Syria, so any US bombing raids would be deemed threatening to Russian military personnel, who would respond accordingly.

Moscow also doubles military supplies to the dictatorial Assad regime’s war effort.

For the second time in four days, the US guided missile destroyer USS Mason respondes to an incoming missile threat while conducting routine operations in international waters off the Red Sea coast of Yemen

In New York – The head of Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Hagai El-Ad, calls for the United Nations to take action against the Jewish state’s settlements, telling a special session of the Security Council that Israel was creating facts on the ground in advance of any peace agreement with the Palestinians. He cites "invisible, bureaucratic daily violence" that dominates Palestinian life "from cradle to grave,"

including Israeli control over entrance and exit from territories, and even farming rights.

The UK decides to deploy hundreds of troops, as well as aircraft and armour to eastern Europe as part of the biggest build-up of NATO forces in the region since the Cold War. The deployment is taking place during growing tensions over a series of high-profile Russian military manoeuvres. RAF Typhoon aircraft from RAF Coningsby are being sent to Romania for up to four months, while 800 personnel will be sent with armoured support to Estonia, 150 more than previously planned, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

France and Denmark will also commit more troops

Massachusets, USA – Malcolm 'Jarry' (49), a self-described "secular Jew", who co-founded The Satanic Temple in 2013 (Jarry is his pseudonym, and he refuses to be photographed) opens a new heaquarters for his Satanic Temple, a controversial movement with up to 50,000 members worldwide. Satanists, do not believe that Satan exists.

Derived from the Hebrew root for "adversary," Satan is viewed by them as a symbol, not an idol or deity.

flotilla on its way to the Syrian coast, to launch a major attack on the people of Aleppo, in support of the Syrian dictator, is expected to arrive Wednesday 2 November, and to launch its attack no later than Friday 4th.

27: In Sochi, Russia – President Vladimir Putin, in a speech at the Valdai Discussion Club urges Russians to “fight until the end” as tensions continue to mount between the West and the Kremlin. In a speech to both Russian and foreign politicians, along with a host of analysts –

Putin slams Barack Obama’s foreign policy and defends his decision to bombard the besieged city of Aleppo.

– The Lithuanian government is so alarmed it has printed a mass-circulation pamphlet advising citizens (population 3 million) on how best to strike back at a Russian occupying force with lightning guerrilla war tactics. The 75-page guide, which has now been distributed to 30,000 people, explains how to become an insurgent if Putin's forces attack the country from the East.

This anxiety has increased on the back of Donald Trump's election in the US and his refusal to confirm his commitment to NATO.

Tiny Lithuania could offer almost no battlefield resistance to Putin aggression – so the only way for citizens to react would be a long drawn-out insurgency.

general of the UK's intelligence unit MI5, Andrew Parker, says of Russia –

– Russia deploys the Iskander-M tactical missile systems, increasing tension in the Baltic states, and blaming the US for the situation:
• Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says: "...nobody made a big secret out of the transportation of the [missile] system onboard the freighter Ambal.... The Iskander ballistic missile system is mobile, as during the training process missile force units improve their skills year-round [which involves] covering major distances across Russian territory by various means: by air, by sea and by their own movement."
• Sergey Grinyaev, CEO "Center for Strategic Assessment and Forecast", explains: "In the recent weeks we witness the rising tensions in the international situation due to the divergent paths [taken by] the US and Russia regarding Syria. This tension in the Middle East is being projected to the Baltic region. The US is stimulating military confrontation on Russia's western borders – in Poland, and in the Baltic republics. One way of countering this pressure is to deploy Iskander operational and tactical rocket complexes in the Kaliningrad region."

1: In Russia – A senior Russian diplomat, Frants Klintsevitsj, the deputy chairman of Russia's defence and security committee, gives a warning to Norway that it is now on the Kremlin's list of potential nuclear targets, after it granted the US permission to base 300 marines on its soil at the Vaernes base near Trondheim, which lies around only 600 miles from the frontier with Russia.

the Black Sea area – Ukraine decides to increase its navy in response to increased Russian naval activity based in the Crimea.

nuclear armed Akula-class submarines to the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland,

after having earlier deployed five attack submarines to the North Atlantic.

Later, three NATO coaltion search planes, anti-submarine frigate Sutherland and a Trafalgar class hunter-killer submarine

search for the Russian vessels amid increased tensions.

electoral victory of Trump in the United States has raised concerns among some European politicians concerning the rise of right wing nationalisms in Europe. Trump is reported to want to reduce the US involvement in NATO, and Russia's Vladimir Putin is reported to have been financially assisting right wing nationalism in Germany to possibly help toward the break up of the European Union.

At the United Nations Security Council, in New York – The Security Council passes a resolution condemning Israeli settlements on confiscated Palestinian land as illegal. The Prime Minister of Israel expresses his anger that America did not use its veto to block the resolution, and then begins to take steps to punish those states that supported it. Friday's UN resolution called on Israel to –

"immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem."

of 2016, the Zika virus spread to at least 58 countries and territories;

outbreaks occurred in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Florida and Texas,
and pregnant women infected with the disease during travel were identified in 44 states.

Last year in the U.S., 77 Zika babies died in the womb, while 51 babies were born with Zika-related birth defects.

Each of the surviving children will cost an estimated $10 million to care for during their lifetimes.

money problems have troubled the public health response to Zika since last February, when the Obama administration asked Congress for an emergency infusion of $1.9 billion for the crisis. But the plan languished after Republicans inserted a provision blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving money from the bill and Democrats balked.

Congress finally approved a $1.1 billion package in September after removing the Planned Parenthood language.

To date, the testing has revealed evidence of a Zika infection in more than 5,000 pregnant women in the U.S. About two thirds of them are in Puerto Rico, where the disease erupted last year. State programs that track Zika infections and Zika-related birth defects around the USA are in jeopardy as public health officials have been told not to count on federal funds for those efforts after July 2017.

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