Far below the Dead Sea, between Israel, Jordan and Palestinian territories, researchers have found evidence of a drought that has no precedent in human experience.
From depths of 300 metres below the landlocked basin, drillers brought to the surface a core that contained 30 metres of thick, crystalline salt: evidence that 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago, rainfall had been only about one fifth of modern levels.
The cause in each case would have been entirely natural. But in the region where human civilisation began, already in the grip of its worst drought for 900 years, it is a reminder of how bad things could get and a guide to how much worse human-induced climate change could become.
Dead Sea evidence of unprecedented drought is warning for future
US coalition investigating reports of deadly Mosul airstrike
The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group is investigating reports of an airstrike in a western neighborhood in the Iraqi city of Mosul that allegedly left more than 100 civilians dead, according to a statement given to The Associated Press on Friday.
The suspected high toll underscores the difficulties that Iraqi troops face in the weeks-long fight to route the Sunni militant group from the densely urban part of the city, Iraq's second-largest.
US led coalition air raid hits refugee shelter in Syria
Dozens of people were killed earlier this week in a suspected US-led coalition air raid that hit a school sheltering displaced people near Raqqa, ISIL's self-declared capital in Syria, according to a monitoring group.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that its contacts had counted at least 33 bodies at the site near the village of al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa.
Graeme MacQeen: Beyond their wildest dreams: 9/11 and the American Left
On November 23, 1963, the day after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Fidel Castro gave a talk on Cuban radio and television.[1] He pulled together, as well as he could in the amount of time available to him, the evidence he had gathered from news media and other sources, and he reflected on this evidence.
The questions he posed were well chosen: they could serve as a template for those confronting complex acts of political violence. Were there contradictions and absurdities in the story being promoted in the U.S. media? Who benefitted from the assassination? Were intelligence agencies claiming to know more than they could legitimately know? Was there evidence of foreknowledge of the murder? What was the main ideological clash in powerful U.S. circles and how did Kennedy fit in? Was there a faction that had the capacity and willingness to carry out such an act? And so on. But beneath the questions lay a central, unspoken fact: Castro was able to imagine—as a real possibility and not as mere fantasy—that the story being promoted by the U.S. government and media was radically false.
Report: Russian Elite Invested Nearly $100 Million In Trump Buildings, Records Show
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump downplayed his business ties with Russia. And since taking office as president, he has been even more emphatic.
“I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia,” President Trump said at a news conference last month. “I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia.”
Top NSA official ridicules allegation Britain spied on Trump
Allegations from the United States that British spy agency GCHQ snooped on Donald Trump during his election campaign are "arrant nonsense", the deputy head of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) said in an interview on Saturday.
President Trump has stood by unproven claims that the Obama administration tapped his phones during the 2016 White House race. On Thursday his spokesman cited a media report that Britain's GCHQ was behind the surveillance.
Richard Ledgett, deputy director of the NSA, told BBC News the idea that Britain had a hand in spying on Trump was "just crazy".
Bruce Enberg: The End of the World
In case you missed it the other day, Senators of the Intelligence Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Diane Feinstein emerged late after a TOP SECRET briefing from the Director of Your FBI to face reporters. Chairman Grassley let the Ranking Member speak for him as he appeared about to lose his lunch.
They steadfastly refused to make any comment on the briefing with Democrat Feinstein repeating that the briefing was highly classified. Remember that the reporter gaggle was scheduled ahead of time & Feinstein apologized for keeping them waiting for a considerable time.
Trump travel ban dealt another blow by Maryland judge
President Trump's temporary travel ban targeting six majority-Muslim countries was dealt another blow Thursday after a federal judge in Maryland suspended a portion of the ban that prevented visas being issued to nationals of the six countries.
The Maryland decision follows a ruling by a federal judge in Hawaii on Wednesday, although it is narrower in scope.
Fed hikes interest rates, signals two more increases for 2017
The Federal Reserve’s top policymaking body on Wednesday pulled the trigger on another increase in interest rates, the first since Donald Trump became president, and signaled there will be two more hikes this year.
The Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the key borrowing rate that affects interest payments on everything from mortgages to savings accounts, raised rates one-quarter of a percentage point. Still, the FOMC emphasized that it plans to nudge up interest rates gradually. The key rate now stands at between 3/4 of a percent and 1 percent.
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