May 7, 2021 Share
A dramatic drop in water levels on the Euphrates River in recent weeks is adding to tensions between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish forces.
Kurdish officials in northeast Syria accuse Turkey of reducing the levels of water flowing downstream, causing an agricultural crisis and a major power shortage in the region.
“Areas under our control benefit greatly from the Euphrates water supply, so this is a blockade approach by the Turkish government to undermine our authority and harm our region,” Badran Chia Kurd, the executive deputy president of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES), told local radio station Arta FM on Tuesday.
Biden’s push for restoring aid to Palestinians faces legal hurdles and brewing political crisis
U.S. President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. Last week, his administration announced that it would allocate $90 million in aid to the Palestinians, with $75 million going to short-term projects to rebuild U.S.-Palestinian relations and $15 million for coronavirus relief.
Additionally, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday plans to restart funding for UNRWA, the U.N. agency that deals with Palestinian refugees.
Not only are there plans to restart funding for UNRWA, but the new administration is pushing more fiscal aid and a return to the negotiating table as the Palestinians head for elections in May.
The Vienna meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission is aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran.
‘’We are not and will not offer any unilateral gestures or incentives to sweeten any sort of deal or to induce Iran to – back to the negotiating table or to a better position at that negotiating table,’’ declared this week U.S. State Department Ned Price as he was asked by reporters about the Vienna indirect talks aimed at reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran from which Washington withdrew under former President Trump.
The talks in the Joint Commission of the JCOPA resumed on Friday in the Austrian capital on bridging what the U.S. calls “tremendous and profound differences” over how to salvage the nuclear agreement.
May 7, 2021
The White House has announced they support suspending the intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccine in order to increase vaccine production. This has surprised European Allies including Germany that have said they wouldn’t like to cross that line. Other opponents say it won’t help because ramping up production of vaccines is not based solely on the recipe but the raw materials available and the production facility capabilities. FOX’s Trey Yingst speaks with Craig Singleton, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, about the announcement and what it may mean to vaccine production and the companies that developed their own.
The top general over U.S. troops in Africa warned that China plans to establish a new military base on Africa’s western coast capable of hosting submarines and aircraft carriers. The move would expand China’s access to the Atlantic Ocean and provide a base to rearm its naval forces in a potential conflict with the U.S.
In an interview with the Associated Press published Thursday, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) commanding Gen. Stephen Townsend said China has already approached countries along nearly the entire west African coastline, as far north as Mauritania and as far south as Namibia, to pitch the major naval base idea.