Trump increases the tension with new sanctions on Iran

Pompeo, Trump and Bolton (Photo State Department/Public Domain)

US President Trump on Monday signed an order for new sanctions aggainst Iran that target the supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei and commanders of several military units. The order came af the downing by Iran of an American drone, that according to the US was in international airspace, but according to Iran flew above Iranian territory. The American measures are not only a way of retaliation, they also want to force Iran to hold talks about its nuclear policy and missile program, after America nullified the JCPOA, the nuclear agreement that five world powers in 2015 concluded with  Iran.
Secretary Mnuchin of the Treasur Department said that apart from Khamenei senior commanders of eight Navy, Aerospace, and Ground Forces of the Revolutionaru Guards Corps were hit by the sanctions. He also said that Foreign Minister Javad Sharif would be targeted next week. The accounts of Khameni and the commaners have been blocked and they cannot make use of American financial nsystesm anymore. According to Mnuchin's Treasury ''these commanders sit atop bureaucracy that supervices malicious reguional activities, including its provocative ballistic missile program, harassment and sabotage of commercial vessels in in ternational waters and its destabilizing presence in Syria''.

For second time Erdogan's AKP looses the election for mayor of Istanbul

(Photo The Pessoptimist)

The candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP) on Sunday won the second ballot during the election of the mayor of Istanbul.   After 95% of the votes had been counted, the candidate of the governing AK Party of  Recep Tayip Erdogan conceded he lost. ''According to the result as of now, my competitor Ekrem Imamoglu is leading the race. I congratulate him and wish him good luck," Binali Yildirim said. The CHP had more than 53% of the vote at that moment, while the AKP candidate reached 534,4 percent.
De win of the CHP in Istanbul election ends the 17 year rule by the AK Party in Turkey's largest city and commercial hub. The Istanbul mayoral election was first held on March 31. At that vtime Imamoglu won with 48.8 percent of the vote, while the AK Party's Yildirim got 48.55 percent, so that Imamoglu became mayor with a very small margin. But at the instigation of president Erdogan the AKP contested the results, which had the consequence that the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) annulled the results on dispututede grounds and scheduled a rerun.

U.S. almost attacked Iranian targets after downing of American drone

Iranian media showed the trajectory of the drone according to Tehran, after it took off from the United Arab Emirates.


U.S. President Donald Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching attacks, US media reports said on Friday. Citing senior White House officials.
 The New York Times reported an operation sanctioned by Trump to launch attacks on a "handful of Iranian targets" - including radar and missile batteries - was "in its early stages" on Thursday evening when the US leader changed tack and called it off.
Planes and ships were already underway when the order to stand down came, the Times cited one unidentified administration official as saying. The Washington Post and ABC News also reported the developments, citing unnamed White House officials and other sources said to be familiar with the matter. The White House declined to comment on the reports.
On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry said Tehran had "indisputable" evidence that the aircraft violated its airspace. Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Swiss Ambassador Markus Leitner, whose country represents US interests in Iran, of the evidence on Thursday night, the ministry said in a statement. "Even some parts of the drone's wreckage has been retrieved from Iran's territorial waters," Araghchi said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gave the exact coordinates where he said the drone was shot down.

Hundreds of Jewish scholars protest resignation director Jewish Museum Berlin

A group of 45 academic Talmud scholars has signed a letter in support of Peter Schäfer, the former director of the Berlin Jewish Museum who resigned last week amid criticism of a tweet linking to a pro-Israel boycott story.

Prof. Peter Schäfer

Such a letter is unprecedented among the Talmudist community, which  tends to shy away from commenting on current affairs, said Ishay Rosen Zvi, a Talmud professor at Tel Aviv University who co-organized the letter with a Princeton University Talmud professor, Moulie Vidas.

A separate letter signed by a broader group of Jewish studies scholars protested “that the reputation of a scholar devoted to Judaism would be smeared in public.” That letter has 300 signatures.

The Talmudists’ letter states that all its signatories, who hold a range of views on Israel and the movement to boycott it, are “united in our profound admiration for Prof. Schäfer.” It calls him “one of the main pillars in the field” of Talmudic studies.

Former Egyptian president Morsi most probably died because of neglect

This is a picture of Mohamed Morsi, the tragic, democratically elected former president of Egypt, who died two days ago in a Cairo courtroom. The way he died give room to the suspicion that his death was de cause of medical nneglect. During his uninterrupted stay in prison since his demise, he has been in solitary confinement and has seen his family only a few times. The former president suffered from diabetes, hypertension, and liver disease and human rights organizations (and British parliamentarians among others), complained several times that he did not get medical attention and that because of that his life was in danger.
On top of that he British newspapaer The Independent, reveals that it took at least 20 minutes after other detainees alarmed the guards that Morsi had collapsed, before he was taken out of the cage in the court house, and another half hour before an ambulance took him to a hospital.
Morsi has been buried yesterday in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City, against the wishes of his family, who wanted him to be buried in the family grave in the governorate of Sharqiyya. Only ten people were allowed to attend. The newsmedia in Egypt did not even mention that he has been the president.