Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Plan demands Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more ground
In the long, lamented history of Israeli-Palestinian peace plans, rarely have expectations been so low. As Jared Kushner took to the stage in Bahrain to effectively lay waste to decades of doctrine on how to solve the conflict, a solution seemed more out of reach than ever.
Kushner’s proposal has been put together by hardliners who have tossed out the rulebook and written a formula of their own serving the interests of the Israeli rightwing.
No Israelis or Palestinians present for launch of plan that shreds decades of diplomacy
The first phase of the Trump administration’s long-awaited peace plan for Israel and Palestine has been rolled out to scepticism, anger and outright derision.
A conference hall of regional officials – with no Israelis or Palestinians present – was the first to hear details of the US-brokered deal, an economic blueprint that shreds decades of diplomacy and which even its mooted financial backers seemed reluctant to embrace.
Trump son-in-law’s plan, which ignores the key political issues, is dismissed as ‘a fantasy that is completely divorced from reality’
A US-designed economic blueprint for Israeli-Palestinian peace will be launched in Bahrain on Tuesday, without the participation of either Palestinian or Israeli officials.
The Palestinians are boycotting the conference and a late decision was taken not to invite Israelis. A relative handful of Palestinian business leaders are expected in Bahrain, for what is widely seen as a “vanity project” for Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Overseas investment flowed to Cadre while Trump’s son-in-law works as US envoy, raising conflict of interest questions
A real estate company part-owned by Jared Kushner has received $90m in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since he entered the White House as a senior adviser to his father-in-law Donald Trump.
Investment has flowed from overseas to the company, Cadre, while Kushner works as an international envoy for the US, according to corporate filings and interviews. The money came through a vehicle run by Goldman Sachs in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven that guarantees corporate secrecy.
NEW: House Majority @LeaderHoyer says contempt vote Tuesday, June 11th will be for both Attorney General Barr AND former White House Counsel McGahn “to comply with Congressional subpoenas that have been duly issued by the House Judiciary Committee”
Mark your calendars. It’s looking like the contempt proceedings for attorney general William Barr, who skipped out on his House judiciary committee hearing last month after a barnburner of a Senate judiciary committee hearing, are set to begin next week.
CONFIRMED: House Dems voting next week to hold AG Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over unredacted Mueller Report, sources in leadership meeting say. Politico first reported.
Others could also receive House floor vote, including former WH lawyer Don McGahn, according to sources. https://t.co/64tMAfAq9T
The full House will vote on June 11th to hold AG Barr in contempt of Congress for not complying w/ the House Judiciary Cmte’s subpoena for Mueller's full unredacted report + underlying evidence, according to 3 Dem sources. Still TBD if other ppl are included in this contempt vote
White House senior adviser says he hopes Palestinians will become ‘capable of governing’ and denies Trump is racist in rare interview
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has expressed uncertainty over the ability of Palestinians to self-govern, in a rare television interview broadcast on Sunday night.
Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and an architect of the White House’s yet-to-be-released Middle East peace plan, told the “Axios on HBO” television program it would be a “high bar” when asked if the Palestinians could expect freedom from Israeli military and government interference.
Snap polls threaten Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ as Netanyahu reveals gift of map from his son-in-law during visit
Jared Kushner’s visit to Jerusalem to promote his troubled Middle East peace plan appeared to abruptly lose its remaining energy after an overnight crisis in Israeli politics plunged the country into a months-long election campaign.
With no guarantees that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Trump-friendly government will stay in power past the summer, any progress made with Kushner – Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser – is at risk of being revoked by the next Israeli administration.
Gulf Cooperation Council will meet to discuss Iran’s alleged role in Gulf drone attacks
A possible US-backed thaw in Qatari-Saudi relations has been signalled by Qatari diplomats travelling to Saudi Arabia to lay the ground for their country’s attendance at a major summit in Mecca on alleged Iranian aggression in the region.
Qatar’s attendance will be seen as the biggest rapprochement between the two countries since the Saudis launched a sweeping economic and political blockade against the gas-rich country two years ago, accusing Doha of trying to undermine Saudi Arabia, fund terrorism and promote the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East.
Official does not confirm Israeli and Palestinian attendance
Palestinians believe peace plan will be in favour of Israel
The US will hold an international economic “workshop” in Bahrain in late June, seeking to encourage investment in the Palestinian territories as the first part of Donald Trump’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan, the White House said on Sunday.
President called plan to transform the nation’s green card system ‘pro-American, pro-immigrant and pro-worker’
Donald Trump has announced plans for “merit-based” legal immigration – but before the US president even stepped up to the lectern in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday afternoon, opponents declared the sweeping reforms “dead on arrival”.
Trump appeared to acknowledge as much when he warned that Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, might block the changes – a sign of his political impotence as the next presidential election draws ever closer.
Trump son-in-law says upcoming Middle East peace plan will be ‘very acceptable’ to Palestinians
Jared Kushner has revealed aspects of the US peace plan for the Middle East, indicating it would pull back from longstanding mentions of a two-state solution with the Palestinians and accept Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, is expected to present a long-awaited deal next month on behalf of the US administration, which has closely aligned itself with Israel’s rightwing.
President’s son-in-law and senior adviser dismissed concerns about Russian spying operations at Time 100 summit
Jared Kushner has played down Russian interference in the 2016 US election, describing Moscow’s attack as “a bunch of Facebook ads” and calling Robert Mueller’s two-year special counsel investigation “a big distraction”.
Speaking at the Time 100 summit in New York City on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser dismissed concerns about Russian spying operations laid out in alarming detail over 199 pages of the Mueller report released last week.
Election victory gives Israeli PM confidence he will get his way on Iran and Palestine
His supporters call him a magician. And there is truly something uncanny about how Benjamin Netanyahu has conjured up three-way US, Russian and Arab support for his hardline security and nationalist agenda. For a small country, Israel packs an ever bigger punch – and pugnacious Bibi’s likely fifth term presages a new era of escalating confrontation.
First in line for the Netanyahu treatment is Iran. He claimed credit on Monday for Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, including its al-Quds force, a foreign terrorist organisation. The provocative move, akin to singling out the US marine corps for punishment, bought a vengeful riposte from Tehran.
The President’s son-in-law has been identified as the “Senior White House Official” who appeared in reports to the House Oversight Committee, the Washington Post reports. The documents were released this week after whistleblower Tricia Newbold shared concerns with the committee, over Trump overriding career intelligence officers to grant clearances despite “significant disqualifying factors”.
Kushner was flagged for significant issues raised during his background investigation, including his potential to be swayed by foreign influence, his personal conduct, and business conflicts of interest.
The new details about the internal debate over Kushner’s clearance revives questions about the severity of the issues flagged in his background investigation and Kushner’s access to government secrets.
Last year, President Trump directed his then-chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to give Kushner a top-secret security clearance, despite concerns expressed by career intelligence officers”.
Top White House officials pushed a plan to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, despite objections from career national security staff, according to a new congressional report.
Exclusive: ex-New Jersey governor, who had prosecuted Kushner’s father, was sacked as head of Trump’s transition team
Chris Christie, who was ousted as chairman of Donald Trump’s White House transition team in 2016, has written a blistering attack on Jared Kushner, whom he accuses of having carried out a political “hit job” on him as an act of revenge for prosecuting his father, Charles Kushner, a decade ago.