A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – The Islamic State hold on territory has been broken, but Iraq now faces another existential threat as it battles neighboring Iran and Turkey for access to an increasingly scarce flow of water to the once-flourishing Fertile Crescent running down the spine of the country.

“The decline is dramatic,” said Hassan Al-Jannabi, Iraqi minister of water resources. “Erratic rainfall and construction of dams in neighboring countries has led to a combined decrease of more than 40 percent in annual flow through the Tigris-Euphrates River Basin.”

One of the biggest impacts is from a major Turkish dam project on the Tigris, which flows southward through Iraq from sources in Iran and southern Turkey. Ankara is now filling the Ilisu Dam — a 440-foot-high, 6,000-foot-wide behemoth — about 70 miles north of the Iraqi border. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Republican National Committee’s program to out-do former President Obama’s grassroots organizing has gone into warp speed and already made a record-breaking 30 million voter contacts in its goal of keeping the House and Senate in GOP hands.

RNC officials said that 30 million voter contacts is a month ahead of schedule and better off than it was in 2016 when it out-hustled the Democrats to help Donald Trump win the presidency over presumed winner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The unusually aggressive ground campaign was designed to build a Republican grassroots effort. The RNC turned to its Republican Leadership Initiative Fellowship and it has locked in 20,000 fellows, four times its voter outreach force of just two years ago. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – White House National Security Adviser John Bolton arrived in Israel Sunday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks focused mainly on Iran.

One of the U.S. administration’s leading hawks, Bolton has pushed for greater pressure on Iran to ensure it halts its support for terrorism and its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Bolton told ABC News in an interview earlier that the United States, Israel and Russia share the common goal of removing Iranian and Iranian-led forces from Syria, and ending Iran’s support for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Hamas said on Monday that it will not lay down its weapons or “pay any political price” as part of any cease-fire agreement with Israel.

“We benefit from the truce,” senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar was quoted as telling the online newspaper Al-Khaleej Online. “Our weapons will remain in our hands and there are no conditions regarding Hamas’s right to [continue] the resistance. The truce does not require a political price [from Hamas] and it is not part of the deal of the century.”

The “deal of the century” refers to US President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – It is unlikely coincidental that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this weekend restated a call for “popular resistance” against Israel, as the PA boss, back up against the wall, is seen by critics as having resorted to the often-used tactic of deflecting blame away from his own shortcomings and onto the “occupation.”

Increasingly, observers opine that Abbas’ actions appear driven by his marginalization, with the Trump administration last week having expressed an unprecedented willingness to bypass the PA altogether if it means enhancing the security and economic prospects in the Gaza Strip. Ramallah’s relations with Washington reached a nadir when the Palestinian leader imposed a boycott on American officials following President Donald Trump’s recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Abbas has on numerous occasions since rejected out-of-hand the White House’s yet-unveiled peace proposal.

The cold hard truth may be setting in: namely, that Abbas is nearing the end of his road without having made much tangible progress towards achieving statehood for his people. To the contrary, the Palestinians arguably are divided more than ever between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which effectively constitute distinct and competing entities. Now, Abbas is publicly being accused of torpedoing the potential Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal possibly out of fear of being further sidelined; this, at a time when growing anger is being directed at the Palestinian chief, including rare protests in Ramallah.

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(Worthy News) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Saturday that his country would not be cowed by the United States, his latest broadside in the bitter feud between Ankara and Washington.

The two NATO members are at odds over Turkey’s detention of an American pastor, which has triggered a trade row and sent the local currency the lira into a tailspin.

“We will not surrender to those who present themselves as a strategic partner while at the same time trying to make us a strategic target,” Erdogan said at a congress of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). [ Source: AFP (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Key advocates pressing Turkey for the release of a U.S. pastor and several other U.S. diplomats are praising the Trump administration for refusing to negotiate with Ankara about U.S. sanctions relief even as they acknowledge an impasse in the efforts to win the Americans’ freedom.

Trump administration officials on Monday confirmed that they rejected an offer from Turkey to release Pastor Andrew Brunson and other U.S. citizens held on disputed terrorism charges in exchange for the U.S. government backing away from an investigation into a major Turkish bank, which the U.S. has accused of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Jay Sekulow is an attorney who serves as the chief counsel of the conservative American Center for Law & Justice, or ACLJ, and also serves as a member of President Trump’s personal legal team. Sekulow has been an outspoken advocate for Brunson’s swift return but praised Trump over the weekend for “refusing to pay a ransom to Turkey” for the pastor’s release. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A progressive and registered Democrat was assaulted by militant leftists earlier this month for carrying an American flag at a protest in Portland, Oregon, and is recovering from his injuries.

Paul Welch was given a concussion and a severe laceration, requiring four staples in his head, after he refused to give black-clad Antifa members his “fascist” American flag, the Oregonian reported. Welch then took a club to the head and collapsed to the ground, blood pooling around him.

In downtown Portland on August 4, Welch joined a crowd of progressives protesting a rally by the group Patriot Prayer, which they consider right-wing. Welch said he wanted to carry Old Glory to show that those in liberal cities have pride in America. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Two Iranian-Americans have been charged by the Trump administration with spying on Jewish and Israeli-associated facilities in California on behalf of the hardline Iranian regime, the Department of Justice announced late Monday.

The charges, first made public on Monday, are among the first by the Trump administration charging Iranian spies of running operations on the Jewish and American communities on American soil.

“The National Security Division is committed to protecting the United States from individuals within our country who unlawfully act on behalf of hostile foreign nations,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in a statement. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Iran unveiled a new fighter jet on Tuesday, state media reported, as tensions rise between Tehran and regional rivals over conflicts in the Middle East.

The fighter jet called Kowsar was fully domestic made, capable of carrying various weapons, and will be used for short aerial support missions, Tasnim news agency said.

State television showed live pictures of a ceremony in Tehran in which the fighter jet flew in the presence of President Hassan Rouhani, a day before the country’s National Defense Industry Day. [ Source: Channel News Asia (Read More…) ]

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