A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Chinese and Indian troops are readying themselves for a possible armed conflict in the event they fail in their efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution to their border dispute on the Doklam plateau in the Himalayas, observers said.

On Friday, India’s defense minister Arun Jaitley told parliament that the country’s armed forces are “prepared to take on any eventuality” of the stand-off, Indian Express reported the same day.

Sources close to the Chinese military, meanwhile, said that the People’s Liberation Army is increasingly aware of the possibility of war, but will aim to limit any conflict to the level of skirmishes, such as those contested by India and Pakistan in Kashmir. [ Source (Read More…) ]

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China and India’s Border Standoff Heats Up in Kashmir

(Worthy News) – A commander in Hamas’s military wing was killed early Thursday in an ISIS suicide bombing at the Rafah border crossing, which connects the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

According to the Gazan Interior Ministry, Hamas forces stopped for a security check two people who were nearing the border crossing from inside the strip when one of them set off an explosion, likely from a suicide belt.

The commander who was killed was identified as 28-year-old Nidal al-Jaafari, who in addition to being a member of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades also served in the Hamas security forces. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel’s former air force chief said Wednesday that it has carried out dozens of airstrikes on weapons convoys destined for the Lebanese Hezbollah group over the past five years.

The remarks by Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel revealed for the first time the scale of the strikes, which are usually neither confirmed or denied by the IAF.

Eshel told the Haaretz newspaper that Israel hit weapons convoys destined for the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Syrian forces, almost 100 times since 2012. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel’s former air force chief said Wednesday that it has carried out dozens of airstrikes on weapons convoys destined for the Lebanese Hezbollah group over the past five years.

The remarks by Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel revealed for the first time the scale of the strikes, which are usually neither confirmed or denied by the IAF.

Eshel told the Haaretz newspaper that Israel hit weapons convoys destined for the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Syrian forces, almost 100 times since 2012. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump disbanded two of his economic advisory councils Wednesday, faced with the embarrassing resignations of numerous business leaders amid rising condemnation over his comments about violence at a white nationalist rally and a liberal pressure campaign.

Mr. Trump abruptly announced that he was shuttering the business groups just after news broke that one of them, the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum chaired by Blackstone CEO and Trump confidante Stephen Schwarzman, intended to disband on its own. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon announced the planned shipment of 32 M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles from America to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), at an “investment” of $100 million.

Meanwhile, our soldiers have been working with them and training them on how to use a number of other weapons systems that have been transferred to the Lebanese army over the past year. They include howitzers, grenade launchers, machine guns, mortars, hellfire missiles, night vision devices, and thermal sights technology.

At this point, any thinking person should be asking that, given that Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah, and is a client state of Iran, doesn’t this mean that we are essentially arming Hezbollah? [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Central bankers on the Federal Open Market Committee appear to be uncertain of what’s in store for America’s inflationary indicators, which could rankle investors and complicate interest-rate and balance-sheet decisions through the rest of the year.

Minutes from the FOMC’s June meeting were made public Wednesday and shed light on a group of central bankers that didn’t appear to be entirely on the same page.

“A few” indicated they were worried about “substantially overshooting full employment” and the possible economic complications that could arise from an overheated labor market. “Most” expect inflation to pick up in the months and years ahead, but “many … saw some likelihood that inflation might remain below 2 percent for longer than they currently expected.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A Chicago pastor has called on Mayor Rahm Emmanuel to rename two parks named for former Presidents George Washington and Andrew Jackson, both slaveholders.

Bishop James Duke of the Liberation Christian Center said that the city should not honor slave owners in black communities, CBS Chicago reports.

A statue of Washington stands at the corner of 51st and King Drive, at the northwest entrance to Washington Park. Nearby Jackson Park has no similar statue, but is still named after the seventh president. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Baltimore’s mayor said she wanted to move “quickly and quietly” after officials approved a plan to remove four Confederate statues Monday night, a decision that came amid a national furor over a violent white nationalist gathering in Virginia organized to protest the removal of a Confederate statue there.

Mayor Catherine Pugh told reporters Wednesday morning she felt the best way to remove the monuments, in an effort to keep the community safe, was to do the work overnight.

“I though there’s enough grandstanding, enough speeches being made [on the top], let’s get it done,” she said. “I spoke with the city council on Monday and said, ‘With the climate in this nation, I think it’s very important that we move quickly and quietly’…and that’s what I did.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – One of the FBI’s top investigators, tapped by special counsel Robert Mueller just weeks ago to help lead the probe of Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election, has left Mueller’s team, sources tell ABC News.

The recent departure of FBI veteran Peter Strzok is the first known hitch in a secretive probe that by all public accounts is charging full-steam ahead. Just last week, news surfaced that Mueller’s team had executed a search warrant at the Virginia home of Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. And the week before that ABC News confirmed Mueller is now using a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., to collect documents and other evidence.

It’s unclear why Strzok stepped away from Mueller’s team of nearly two dozen lawyers, investigators and administrative staff. Strzok, who has spent much of his law enforcement career working counterintelligence cases and has been unanimously praised by government officials who spoke with ABC News, is now working for the FBI’s human resources division. [ Source (Read More…) ]