Israel to open seven new nature reserves in occupied West Bank

Palestinians call controversial move 'dangerous and expansionist' as Israeli rights groups say building new reserves violates international and local law

AND THEY WOULD BE CORRECT
Bel Trew Jerusalem @beltrew

A Palestinian shepherd herds his flock in the West Bank 

near the Israeli Settlement of Ma'ale Adumim ( EPA )

Israel has announced that it will open seven new nature reserves in the occupied West Bank, the first time it has made such a move in 25 years.

The controversial decision sparked a backlash from Israeli rights groups and the Palestinian leadership, which has vowed to lodge complaints with the United Nations and international courts.

Naftali Bennett, Israel’s defence minister, confirmed the new sites and said the move was a “big boost for the land of Israel”. He added that 12 existing reserves will also be expanded, including Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were fdiscovered in caves 70 years ago.

Mr Bennett, who heads the pro-settlement New Right party, said the reserves will be located in Area C, which makes up 61 per cent of the West Bank and is under total Israeli control.

The lands will include the Jordan Valley, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to annex ​in September.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law and detrimental to a widely accepted two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestine conflict.

According to Israeli rights group Peace Now, which monitors settlement expansion, more than a third of the proposed location of the new reserves is on private Palestinian land, making it illegal even under Israeli law.

Mr Bennett was quoted as saying: “Today we provide a big boost for the land of Israel and will continue to develop the Jewish communities in Area C with actions, not with words.

“I invite all the citizens of Israel to tour and walk the land, to come to [the West Bank], sight-see, discover and continue the Zionist enterprise.”

Mr Bennett said it would be the first time such a decision was taken since the Oslo Accords were signed in the 1990s.

He is likely to be trying to rally support as he seeks re-election to the Knesset in the forthcoming 2 March vote.

The Palestinian Authority was quick to condemn the latest move, accusing Mr Bennett of "erecting a new colonial umbrella to fight the Palestinian presence in those areas".

The Palestinian foreign ministry said it would lodge complaints over the "dangerous announcement" at the UN and in international courts.

“The Foreign Ministry condemns in the strongest terms Bennett’s colonialist and expansionist decisions and affirms that the so-called nature reserves are just another scheme for the appropriation and seizure of Palestinian land,” the ministry said, as reported by Palestinian news agency WAFA.

“This goes, in the end, for the benefit of shoring up settlements in the occupied West Bank.”

Peace Now said the move was part of restricting Palestinian access to their lands and normalising the annexation of parts of the West Bank.

The group added that Israel has 96 nature reserves and 14 national parks in the West Bank, despite it being a violation of international law.

Watch more

American TV show Jeopardy says Bethlehem is in Israel, not Palestine

Brian Reeves, a Peace Now spokesman, said 31 Israeli settlements or outposts were built partially or entirely within these reserves.

“These reserves serve a larger function of keeping land off-limits to Palestinians. Nature reserves and national parks have also been used to prevent Palestinian construction,” Mr Reeves told The Independent.

“Under international law, any Israeli building or designation in the West Bank is illegal. But 38 per cent of these lands are on private Palestinian land adding a second layer of illegality under Israel’s own laws.

“They are trying to slowly take over Area C as if this wasn’t occupied territory. No two-state solution could envision 61 per cent of the West Bank being part of Israel.”



Israel announces 7 nature reserves in West Bank and expansion of 12 others
The Israeli defence minister, Naftali Bennett approved the creation of 7 nature reserves and the expansion of 12 others in Area C of the occupied West Bank

January 16, 2020
The Israeli defence minister, Naftali Bennett, on Wednesday approved the creation of seven nature reserves and the expansion of 12 others in Area C of the occupied West Bank, a statement confirmed.

In his statement, Bennett ordered the Israeli Civil Administration – the Israeli governing body that operates in the West Bank – to start preparing for the opening of the reserves.

The Times of Israel disclosed that this is the first time that such a step has been taken by the Israeli government, since the Oslo Peace Accords were reached in the 1990s.

“Today, we provide a big boost for the land of Israel and continue to develop the Jewish communities in Area C, with actions, not with words,” Bennett announced in his statement.

READ: The race to annexation

“The Judea and Samaria [West Bank] area has nature sites with amazing views. We will expand the existing ones and also open new ones,” he added.

“I invite all the citizens of Israel to tour and walk the land, to come to Judea and Samaria, sight-see, discover and continue the Zionist enterprise,” Bennett continued.

Bennett identified the seven new locations in his statement as: Soreq Cave, Al-Shomoo’a Cave, Wadi Al-Muqallek, Wadi Malha, Bitronot, Wadi Al-Far’a and the north of Jordan Valley.

FETISH WORSHIP, ANIMISTIC IDOLATRY JUST LIKE MECCA DURING HAJ, AND THE VATICAN AT CHRISTMAS

9 January 2020

Devotees follow the carriage transporting the statue of the Black Nazarene during an annual religious procession in its honour in Manila. Thousands of barefoot devotees joined the religious procession hoping to touch a centuries-old icon of Jesus Christ, called the Black Nazarene, which is believed to have miraculous powers

AFP via Getty

Luxury yachts caught smuggling Chinese immigrants into Florida, federal investigators say

Authorities seize hundreds of thousands of dollars in alleged scheme to bring people into US from Bahamas


Federal authorities say the US Coast Guard stopped two 

yachts from carrying more than two dozen Chinese nationals

 into the US from the Bahamas. ( Getty Images )


Forty Chinese immigrants were charged thousands of dollars to be smuggled in yachts from the Bahamas into Florida, according to federal court documents that allege a scheme involving luxury liners ferrying passengers into the country without legal permission to enter the US.

Three men are facing human smuggling charges outlined in federal indictments filed this month.

Rocco Oppedisano is accused of piloting a 63-foot Sunseeker yacht named INXS Finally with 14 Chinese passengers and one Bahamian aboard during a December voyage, according to a federal indictment filed on 7 January, according to the Miami Herald.

In separate cases, the US Coast Guard stopped two ships from entering South Florida and arrested crew members who are accused of bringing 26 Chinese passengers and one Bahamian passenger aboard their ships, which contained more than $300,000 in cash.

Federal authorities discovered $118,000 behind one yacht's wall panelling in the master bedroom, according to court documents. That ship's captain, James Bradford, allegedly told investigators that he didn't check whether his passengers had travel documents that granted them legal permission to enter the US.

It's unclear in court documents why the Chinese passengers tried to enter the US through the Bahamas, but the archipelago has seen a spike in Chinese workers in recent years, many entering the country illegally, as Chinese investors funnel billions of dollars into hotels and resorts in the nation that sits just 50 nautical miles from Miami. 

Read more
 

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Arizona official accused of smuggling mothers to US to give up babies

British government ‘driving refugees to use deadly smuggling routes’

Woman who smuggled baby in hand luggage charged with child trafficking

Among the passengers on Mr Oppedisano's yacht was Chinese national Ying Lian Li, who was deported from the US in 2019 and was attempting to re-enter the country, federal investigators allege.

Federal authorities confiscated more than $200,000 in US and Bahamian currency from aboard Mr Oppedisano's yacht.

He told a magistrate judge that he sold property as well as his Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Fiat cars to pay for the legal costs related to his immigration status.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on 22 January.

Robert McNeil has pleaded guilty to one count of alien smuggling to make a profit, and James Bradford is awaiting trial in federal court.

---30--- 

Carillion: New hospitals delayed for years by collapse of outsourcing giant, official report says

THE END OF THE EIGHTIES MYTH OF OUTSOURCING
CARILLION ALSO OPERATED IN CANADA 

National Audit Office predicts two hospitals will now open years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of pounds over budget

Carillion was the UK's second-largest construction company at the time of its collapse in 2018 ( Reuters )


Two hospitals being built by engineering giant Carillion when it collapsed are being delayed for several years, according to an official report.

The 646-bed Royal Liverpool, due to open in 2017, is now forecast to be completed more than five years late, although an opening date has not yet been set, said the National Audit Office (NAO).

It is now predicted to cost over £1bn to build and run the hospital, compared with the original £746m, with the taxpayer expected to pay £739m, a reduction of 1 per cent from what was originally planned, said the NAO.


The 669-bed Midland Metropolitan, due to open in October 2018, is now expected to open in the summer of 2022, at a cost of at least £988 million, over £300m more than the original amount, said the report.

The taxpayer is expected to pay £709m of this, an increase of 3 per cent from the original figure, said the NAO.

The private sector has borne most of the cost increase, with shareholders, investors, insurers and Carillion losing at least £603m on the construction of both projects, it was found.

The NAO said there were significant construction problems and delays before Carillion went into liquidation in January 2018 but the contractor’s collapse created more delay.

Work on both sites stopped while the hospital Trusts, government and the private investors attempted to rescue the projects.


The full extent of construction problems at Royal Liverpool began to emerge after Carillion collapsed and over the course of 2018, said the NAO.
Read more
Unite calls for probe into controversial collapse of Carillion
Carillion collapse drives 20% spike in construction insolvencies
Carillion redundancies to cost taxpayers £65m, new figures reveal
Carillion under investigation for insider trading, watchdog reveals
Minister condemns Carillion’s ‘completely unsustainable’ prisons deal
Carillion’s collapse to cost taxpayers £148m, audit finds

The new construction contractor has had to strip out three floors of the building and start major work to reinforce the structure with steelwork and additional reinforced concrete.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) paid £42 million compensation to Royal Liverpool’s investors to terminate the PFI (private finance initiative) contract.

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said the report made “grim reading”, adding: “Two desperately needed hospitals are going to be years late and in the meantime local communities are left with facilities that are no longer fit for purpose.

”The responsibility for these delays has to lie squarely at the door of the government, which consistently failed to prioritise the overriding need that these hospitals had to be built.

“While the report notes the financial cost of the projects, the human cost of the delays of completing the hospitals has not been recognised.”

A government spokesman said: “As this report shows, the private sector has borne the brunt of Carillion’s catastrophic failure to complete these two projects.

”To support staff and local communities in Sandwell and Liverpool, we’re giving both Trusts the funding they need to minimise the delays caused by the collapse of Carillion and get these two new hospitals open.“

Press Association

TRUMP'S EVANGELICAL AGENDA OR 

HOW THE MORAL MAJORITY AND THE T PARTY BECAME CULT OF IMMORALITY FOR MAMMON AND POWER TO CREATE A THEOLOGICAL STATE IN AMERIKA

Faith leaders pray over President Donald Trump during a 'Evangelicals for Trump' campaign event held at the King Jesus International Ministry in Miami, Fla., on Jan. 3, 2020. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

TRUMP PRESIDENCY

Trump Highlights Aid to Faith in Speech to Evangelicals, Promises Action on In-school Prayer

BY PETR SVAB THE EPOCH TIMES

January 5, 2020 Updated: January 5, 2020MORE

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President Donald Trump highlighted his accomplishments in aid of the faith community in a speech to evangelicals on Jan. 3 and promised more, including an action to ensure teachers and students are free, or perhaps freer, to pray in schools.

“A society without religion cannot prosper. A nation without faith cannot endure. Because justice, goodness, and peace cannot prevail without the glory of Almighty God,” he said to a crowd of about 7,000 at the King Jesus International Ministry on the outskirts of Miami.

“For America to thrive in the 21st century, we must renew faith and family as the center of American life. There are those who say these sacred beliefs are outdated, but we know they are just the opposite. Our traditions and our values are timeless and immortal.”

Speaking to the Base

Trump’s job approval has dipped among evangelicals in recent polls coinciding with the release of an editorial in Christianity Today, a mainstream Christian magazine, in support of the Democrats’ efforts to impeach Trump.

Doug Pagitt, the executive director of Vote Common Good, a progressive Christian group, called the rally “Trump’s desperate response to the realization that he is losing his primary voting bloc—faith voters.”

Evangelical Christians, however, remain one of the most strongly pro-Trump demographics, along with rural communities, the self-employed, and military households, according to the Dec. 19-20 Morning Consult poll (pdf).

“The extreme left is trying to replace religion with government and replace God with socialism,” Trump said, taking a shot at the Democratic presidential contenders, most of whom support large-scale government programs such as “Medicare for all.”

Trump’s Message

Trump has previously acknowledged his coming short of living up to Christian ideals. He’s been married three times, and his personal life has been a recurring topic of tabloid journalism for decades.

His pitch to evangelicals has relied on his improvements to the political, cultural, and legal climate for the religious.

“Evangelicals, Christians of every denomination, and believers of every faith have never had a greater champion, not even close, in the White House than you have right now,” he said.

Prayer in Schools

Trump promised to address “faithful Americans getting bullied by the hard left.”

“Very soon I’ll be taking action to safeguard students’ and teachers’ First Amendment rights to pray in our schools,” he said.

He gave an example of the Smith County School System in Tennessee that allowed student-led voluntary prayer at school events only to be sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for allegedly violating the separation of church and state (pdf).

The lawsuit said the instances of religious expression “had the effect of coercing the children Plaintiffs into participating in religious observance” and “exposed them to unwanted, officially sponsored religious messages and proselytizing.” The school district admitted some religious expressions took place, but said they were voluntary and not “official.” It denied some of the allegations too.

Under the leadership of Attorney General William Barr, the Justice Department is getting involved in many cases, such as the one in Tennessee, Trump said.

Establishment Clause

Some groups have advocated restrictions on religious expression in public schools. In some cases, restrictions imposed by courts—including the Supreme Court—using the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Some say the clause prohibits even certain personal and voluntary religious expressions, such as a student-led voluntary prayer before a school sports game or a public school teacher silently reading a religious text during self-study time in the classroom.

Yet religious groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have argued that the interpretation of the clause has, in many cases, become overly broad to the point of infringing on the right to free religious expression guaranteed by the First Amendment. Some court decisions seem to bolster that view, such as a 2005 ruling (pdf) by the Sixth Circuit appeals court, which called “the separation of church and state” an “extra-constitutional construct [that] has grown tiresome.”

“The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state,” the court stated.

Johnson Amendment

One of the accomplishments Trump said he made was getting “rid of this horrible Johnson Amendment”—a law that prohibits tax-exempt nonprofits, including religious organizations, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

Though the president doesn’t have the authority to change the 1954 law, Trump did issue an executive order in 2017, directing the Treasury not to enforce the law against religious entities in cases where a non-religious entity would not have been targeted.

The law has rarely been enforced. Still, some conservative groups, including the ADF, have called on lawmakers to rewrite it, saying it makes pastors self-censor and avoid political topics in their sermons.

“Even without direct action by the IRS, the law creates a chilling effect on speech, especially for religious institutions,” the ADF said in a 2016 release, adding that certain groups “regularly send threatening letters to pastors filled with warnings.”

The ADF deems the Johnson Amendment unconstitutional and has organized pastors since 2008 to discuss positions of political candidates, waiting for the IRS to try and enforce the law so it could be challenged in court. There doesn’t seem to be a single such case since then. In 2009, it appeared the IRS almost took the bait, but then dropped its investigation of a pastor in Minnesota, citing an internal procedural issue.

Many pastors and religious groups have endorsed the law, saying it prevents churches from becoming akin to super PACs through which tax-exempt donations could be funneled to political advertising. Some Republicans in Congress have introduced bills that would allow nonprofits to talk about political candidates in the normal course of their activities, but not to spend tax-exempt dollars for such purposes beyond a trifling amount.

Trump promised the legislative change is in the works, though it’s not clear whether it would stand a chance in the current House of Representatives, where Democrats hold the majority. The current bills have been referred to committees with no apparent action for months.

Only a small minority of pastors run afoul of the law, a Pew Research survey indicated, but the violations seemed to hurt Trump politically. Despite his popularity among evangelicals, only 1 percent of churchgoers in the summer of 2016 heard endorsements of him from the pulpit, compared to 6 percent who heard endorsements of his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Among black Protestant churchgoers, the difference was even starker, as only 2 percent heard endorsements of Trump, while 28 percent had Clinton endorsed to them.

End of ‘War on Religion’

Trump’s speech further highlighted the administration’s actions that generally align with evangelicals. Those actions include a push to deny federal funds to abortion providers, making it easier for employers not to cover contraceptives costs for their employees, and supporting faith-based adoption agencies.

“I may not be perfect, but I get things done,” he said.

He characterized his administration as a turning point from policies that negatively affected faith-based institutions.

“Before my election, religious believers were under assault like never before, you all know that—so many leaders here,” he said. “Faith-based schools, charities, hospitals, adoption agencies, business owners, and pastors were systematically targeted by federal bureaucrats in order to abandon their religious beliefs or stop serving their communities. You know all about that. But the day I took office, I got sworn in, the federal government’s war on religion came to an abrupt end.”

He also took credit for the return of wishes of “Merry Christmas” into marketing messages previously driven out by political correctness.

He urged his supporters to convince more people to register to vote and called for even higher voter turnout among evangelicals on Nov. 3, when he’s facing reelection. His 2016 victory, which came as a surprise to many if not most, he seemed to attribute to the divine.

“I really do believe we have God on our side. … Or there would have been no way we could have won, right?” he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Follow Petr on Twitter: @petrsvab

Dear Readers,

Thank you for reading The Epoch Times. Media outlets in America are dividing our nation by pushing false narratives and spinning the facts. Honest news, without hidden agendas or corporate control, is now more crucial than ever. Our operating revenue is generated mostly from subscriptions. When you subscribe, you’re supporting our Mission of Upholding Independent, Honest and Traditional Journalism.

Trump Reinforces Protections For Student Prayer In Schools
The president urged public schools to remember that students have constitutional rights to prayer — but one group says too many schools are promoting prayer ... 

BUT THAT IS ALL SMOKE TO COVER FOR THE REAL MEAT IN THE SANDWICH

Trump to make it easier for religious organizations to receive federal tax money. 

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Jim Daly: Trump upholds religious freedom with new executive order, benefiting all Americans HE MEANS ALL CHRISTIAN AMERICANS
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Fox News Opinion

Trump said he will move to ensure students and teachers can pray in school. They already can.
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Trump’s new guidance on school prayer worries LGBTQ activists
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SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=EDUCATION

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TEACHERS

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SCHOOL

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SATANISM

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SCHOOL+PRAYER

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SATAN

Trump snubbed by 'teacher of the year' who knelt in front of him during anthem at college football game

Kelly Holstine makes her point in a protest inspired by African-American athletes which is known to enrage the president

Alex Woodward New York

Minnesota teacher Kelly Holstine kneeled during the national

 anthem at the 2020 college football championship in New Orleans.

 ( Getty Images )

A Minnesota woman recognised as a "teacher of the year" knelt during the US national anthem at a college football championship game attended by Donald Trump in a protest inspired by black athletes that is known to infuriate him.

During the 2020 championship game in New Orleans between LSU and Clemson University, Kelly Holstine knelt on the field in front of the president and Melania Trump to support "marginalised and oppressed people". Other teachers who received the honour remained standing in a line either side of her.

On Twitter, she quoted civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, saying: "Like many before, I respectfully kneeled during Nat'l Anthem because, 'No one is free until we are all free'."

She also rejected an invitation to the White House for an Oval Office ceremony to receive the honour from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Jessica Dueñas of Kentucky also skipped the event.

Ms Holstine — who teaches at an alternative high school in Shakopee that serves Somali refugees and students who identify as LGBT+ — said that the "words and practices and policies of the administration have been filled with a lot of hate" towards LGBT+ people. "I didn't feel comfortable in that environment."

In an October 2019 speech, Ms Holstine argued for teachers to become advocates for, not just allies to, marginalised and oppressed people.

The Teacher of the Year recognition from the College Football Playoff Foundation and the Council of Chief State School Officers selects a teacher from each state to receive the honour.

Ms Holstine is the first openly LGBT+ person to receive the honour.

Read more

US athletes kneel and raise fist in podium protest at Pan Am Games


Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick inspired a protest movement after he began kneeling during the anthem in 2016 as a silent protest against racial injustice and police brutality following the killings of unarmed black men in the US.

He became a free agent following that season amid speculation that the NFL had effectively blocked him from the league.

Mr Trump has suggested that people who kneel during the anthem should not only be dismissed from the game but also "shouldn't be in the country".

In 2018, he said: "You have to stand, proudly, for the national anthem or you shouldn't be playing. You shouldn't be there. Maybe you shouldn't be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the national anthem. And the NFL owners did the right thing, if that's what they've done."

That year, another teacher protested against the president by handing him letters from her refugee and immigrant students. Washington teacher Mandy Manning wore pins and buttons expressing solidarity with LGBT+ people.

Ms Manning also launched a group, Teachers Against Child Detention, and led a protest in Texas to demand the government release children from their imprisonment along the US-Mexico border.

---30---

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=EDUCATION

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TEACHERS

Trump threatened UK with 25% car tariffs unless it agreed to accuse Iran of breaking nuclear deal

Tehran accuses Britain, France and Germany of succumbing to 'high school bully'

Thursday 16 January 2020 13:42

Donald Trump threatened the UK with a 25 per cent tariff on its cars unless the British government officially accused Iran of breaking the 2015 nuclear deal, it has been reported.

The secret threat last week, first reported by The Washington Post, which cited unnamed European officials, would have seen the tariff imposed on all European automobile imports to the US unless Britain, France and Germany agreed to the ultimatum.


It came days before the three European Union powers on Tuesday triggered a dispute mechanism under the agreement which does amount to a formal accusation against Tehran of violating its terms. It could lead to the reinstatement of United Nations sanctions, but is being framed by the Europeans as the last chance to save the nuclear deal.

Iran said on Thursday the European countries had succumbed to a “high school bully”.

“Appeasement confirmed. E3 sold out remnants of #JCPOA to avoid new Trump tariffs,” Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter, using the acronym of the 2015 accord's official title

Protests in Iran over downing of plane and tensions with the West
Show all 23





“It won’t work my friends. You only whet his appetite. Remember your high school bully?”

The 2015 pact was agreed between Tehran and world powers, offering Iran relief from sanctions if it curbed its nuclear work. Mr Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, telling Tehran he wanted a more stringent deal on nuclear and other issues.

Iran has responded to the US sanctions by scaling back its compliance with the deal, culminating with an announcement this month that it would reject all limits on production of enriched uranium, although it says it wants to keep the deal in place.

Boris Johnson said a “Trump deal” could replace the existing one, were it to fail, while Paris said broad talks were needed.

Two European diplomats confirmed to the Washinton Post that the US had threatened tariffs but said leaders of the three European states had already decided to trigger the mechanism before that.

A third diplomat said such US tactics only undermined the Europeans, who are trying to apply pressure independently.

“True or not it has the effect of discrediting the Europeans, but then Trump doesn’t really care about that,” the diplomat said. “From the Iranian side, it just proves that only the US matters in this.”


The Europeans have long opposed Mr Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal, but have been threatening for months to trigger the dispute mechanism if Iran did not comply with it.

Effigy of UK ambassador to Iran set on fire in Tehran

The dispute mechanism begins a complex diplomatic process that can end with UN sanctions on Iran “snapping back” into place, although the Europeans say that is not their aim.

In triggering the dispute mechanism, the European countries said they were not backing a US policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, and they still hope to salvage the nuclear deal.

The nuclear dispute lies at the heart of Iran’s long-running standoff with the West that spiralled into open conflict this month when Washington killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad and Tehran responded with missile strikes on US targets in Iraq.

During that period of high alert, Iran shot down a civilian airliner in what it says was a tragic mistake. It has triggered anti-government protests at home.

Enriched uranium can be used to create material for nuclear warheads. Iran denies Western accusations it wants such weapons and says it wants nuclear material for peaceful purposes.

“We are enriching more uranium than before the deal was reached,” president Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech. “Pressure has increased on Iran but we continue to progress.”

US sanctions meanwhile have hammered Iran’s economy. Washington aims to reduce its oil exports to zero.

Additional reporting by Reuters

AND NOT JUST THE UK BUT THE WHOLE EU

United States (US) has threatened to impose 25 per cent of tariffs on all European car exports if the European Union (EU) had continued to support Iran’s nuclear deal, German defence minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, announced yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference in Britain’s London, Kramp-Karrenbauer, said that the US President Donald Trump had “secretly” warned France, Germany and the UK that the US would impose a 25 per cent tariffs on European cars if the European countries did not abandon the Iranian nuclear deal reached in the Austrian capital of Vienna in 2015.

Read: Families want compensation for downed Ukrainian plane

“This expression or threat, as you will, does exist,” she reiterated.

Kramp-Karrenbauer remarks came following a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 plane was shot down last week outside Tehran, leaving all 176 crew and passengers dead.

Relations between Tehran and Washington have strained since the US pulled out last year from the 2015 nuclear deal, which curbed Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions. The tensions were heightened after a recent US drone strike killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, who the White House accused him of plotting an earlier embassy attack in Iraq and planning to carry out attacks on US diplomats and service members in Iraq and the region.

This is what the world looked like 300 million years ago

Picture: Massimo Pietobon

Once upon a time, the world as we know it was pretty much one big continent, where Eurasia, North America, South America, Africa, India, Antarctica and Australia were all fused as one.

Picture: LucasVB / Creative Commons

It's believed that it assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago and began to break up about 175 million years ago - and was mostly situated in the southern hemisphere. 

Picture: United States Geological Survey / Creative Commons

Over the passage of time and some very complex science stuff the continent began to break up. 

Now an artist, Massimo Pietrobon has created a map with modern political borders - and it's not what you'd expect.

Picture: (Massimo Pietobon)

In the map, Great Britain is no longer an  island, but has land borders France, Norway and Ireland, and the United States now borders Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Cuba.

Canada borders Denmark, Portugal, and Morocco and Spain has a land border with Algeria

Italy borders Tunisia. Greece borders Libya.

Brazil, famous for its beaches is now landlocked and borders Nambia and Liberia among others. 

Tibet isn't attached to China anymore, but Australia.

Australia also borders Antarctica, which is next to India, Sri Lanka and Mozambique.

See a zoomable, high-res version of the map here.

HT Brilliant Maps

Trump says Mount Rushmore fireworks display planned for July Fourth despite environmental concerns: 

'What can burn? It's stone'

President falsely stated 'no one knew why' event was cancelled in 2019 despite wildfire threat

Alex Woodward New York
Thursday 16 January 2020 

Donald Trump confirmed that an annual fireworks display will return to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in 2020. ( Scott Olson/Getty Images )

Donald Trump said Mount Rushmore will have a fireworks display on Independence Day, despite potential fire hazards that could threaten nearby forests.

An annual fireworks display was cancelled in 2010 after the National Park Service determined that the fireworks endangered vulnerable forestry in the Black Hills National Forest that had been decimated by pine beetles.

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota contains roughly 1,200 acres of forest.

A pine beetle infestation has elevated threats of fire in the area as dead and dying trees act as kindling for wildfires. The display was also cancelled in 2002 during drier-than-usual conditions in the park.

Scientists believe the effects of climate change have enabled a “baby boom” of beetles that thrive in warming temperatures and whose population has strengthened from two, rather than one, reproductive cycles each year.

The beetle also deposits a tree-killing fungus that the insects carry with them as they grow.

During a ceremony marking a trade agreement between the US and China on Wednesday, the president falsely stated that “no one knew why” the fireworks had been cancelled and that “they just said environmental reasons.”

Mr Trump said: “What can burn? It’s stone.”

Last year, Republican South Dakota governor Kristi Noem claimed that “the forest has gained strength and advancements in pyrotechnics allow for a safe fireworks display.”


The governor had reached a deal with US interior secretary David Bernhardt to return fireworks to the park.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump said he “called up our people and within 15 minutes we got” approval for the display.

He said: “We’re going to do a big fireworks display, right? Mount Rushmore ... I’ll try to get out there if I can.”