The Palestinian Authority has paid out some NIS 4 billion — or $1.12 billion — over the past four years to terrorists and their families, a former director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and ex-head of the army’s intelligence and research division told a top Knesset panel on Monday.

Setting out the figures, Brigadier-General (res) Yossi Kuperwasser told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the longer the period for which a Palestinian security prisoner is jailed, “the higher the salary… Anyone who has sat in prison for more than 30 years gets NIS 12,000 ($3,360) per month,” said Kuperwasser, according to the (Hebrew) NRG website. “When they’re released, they get a grant and are promised a job at the Palestinian Authority. They get a military rank that’s determined according to the number of years they’ve served in jail.”

Kuperwasser also told the committee that PA claims that the payments to terrorists’ families are social welfare benefits to the needy are false. The Palestinians’ own budgetary documents, he said, “clearly state that these are salaries and not welfare payments.”

Writing in the London-based Arabic-language Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily while President Donald Trump was on his state visit to Saudi Arabia, Mash’al Al-Sudairi, a columnist from the Gulf kingdom, asserted that from the 1940s until the present day, “Palestinian leaders, while in power, excelled in two things: rhetoric and missing opportunities.”

He criticized the Palestinians for their blanket refusal to accept the 1947 UN partition plan, which would have given them 49% of mandatory Palestine, far more than what is commonly discussed today in the two-state solution.

At this point stocks are about as overvalued as they have ever been, and every other time we have seen a bubble of this magnitude a historic stock market crash has always followed.  Those that are hoping that this time will somehow be different are simply being delusional.

Since November 7th, the Dow is up by about 3,000 points.  That is an extremely impressive rally, and President Trump has been taking a great deal of credit for it. But perhaps he should not have been so eager to take credit, because what goes up must come down.

And as I have explained many times in the past, stocks would have to fall about 40 to 50 percent from current levels just for the stock market to get back to “normal” again.  The valuations that we are seeing today are absolutely insane, and there is no possible way that they are sustainable.

When the crash happens, many people will be pointing their fingers at Trump, but it won’t be his fault. Instead, it will be the Federal Reserve that will be at fault, and hopefully this coming crisis will convince the American people that it is time to end this insidious debt-based central bank for good.

Foodbabe.com reports: The recent series of events below demonstrates how Snopes has been influenced by Monsanto into manipulating the public opinion about the dangers of their bestselling product, Roundup weedkiller (aka glyphosate). Monsanto has made BILLIONS off of the weedkiller Roundup (aka glyphosate) along with their Roundup-Ready GMO seeds, but sales have been plummeting since the truth about this toxic product is coming out. They are doing everything they can to keep those profits coming in!

Food Democracy Now! and The Detox Project conducted a report showing how this popular weedkiller is present in many popular American foods and when my blog post went viral (Millions of views!), Snopes came out with an article claiming that it was a “MIXTURE” of truth and fiction. Snopes suddenly changed their assessment to FALSE about 24 hours later: Did the facts really change? Why would they call this information FALSE?

When you compare both versions of Snopes’ article, you see that they edited it to suit a narrative that fits Monsanto’s agenda – it’s outrageous! It’s as if Monsanto edited it themselves and sent it off to Snopes for publication. Entire sentences and paragraphs were removed that were hurtful to Monsanto. Important data was removed entirely. The wording was changed to make the findings of an independent FDA-registered laboratory seem less scientific or credible…

Her extraordinary comments followed meetings of European leaders with Mr Trump at Nato and the G7. Mrs Merkel, speaking at an election campaign event in a Bavarian beer tent, said it had served as a wake-up call. She said: "The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days. And so, all I can say is that we Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands."

Referencing Brexit, she said: "Of course we need to have friendly relations with the US, and with the UK, and with other neighbours, including Russia." But she added: "We have to fight for our own future ourselves, for our destiny as Europeans."

“The entire 144 dunams (38 acres) of Haram al-Sharif [Temple mount] is a mosque. We believe the Prophet Mohammed prayed there, this hasn’t changed and no one objected to this for centuries. You can’t change the history of the last 1,500 years.”

“I don’t want to get into politics, but Jerusalem should be a center for three religions. Let Jews pray at the Western Wall, even though it’s an inseparable part of Al-Aqsa. They can converge on this holy place. If Israel wants peace it should act wisely. If they continue the way they are doing now they’ll bring a holocaust upon us. There will be bloodshed and no one wants that, except the extremists. Write down that I want to convey the message that force solves nothing,” Tamimi said.

It will, however, distract and detract from remarkable progress being made elsewhere in the Middle East. "Whom the gods would destroy, they first tempt to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict." (Irving Kristol) That progress began with Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, the first of his presidency – an unmistakable declaration of a radical reorientation of US policy in the region. Message: The appeasement of Iran is over.

The idea that the nuclear deal would make Iran more moderate has proved spectacularly wrong, as demonstrated by its defiant ballistic missile launches, its indispensable support for the genocidal Assad regime in Syria, its backing of the Houthi insurgency in Yemen, its worldwide support for terrorism, its relentless anti-Americanism and commitment to the annihilation of Israel.

These aggressions were supposed to abate. They didn't. On the contrary, the cash payments and the lifting of economic sanctions – Tehran's reward for the nuclear deal – have only given its geopolitical thrusts more power and reach.

And apart from being delusional, the inside-out strategy is at present impossible. Palestinian leadership is both hopelessly weak and irredeemably rejectionist. Until it is prepared to accept the legitimacy of the Jewish state – which it has never done in the 100 years since the Balfour Declaration committed Britain to a Jewish homeland in Palestine – there will be no peace.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured me that he too was ready to reach for peace. He’s a friend of mine and he means it,” Trump said. “All children from all faiths deserve a future of hope and peace, a future that does honor to God,” he added.

He also said that he and Netanyahu “continued our discussion about fighting terrorism and crushing the organizations and ideologies that drive it.” He said that recent terror attacks in the UK and Egypt highlighted the urgency for the US to “defeat terrorism and protect civilization.” “Terrorism is a threat, bad threat to all of humanity,” Trump said. “And together we will overcome this threat. We will win.”

If spent fuel at one of the dozens of US nuclear sites sets alight, it “could dwarf the horrific consequences of the Fukushima accident [in Japan],” researchers from Princeton University and the Union of Concerned Scientists warned in their study published in the May 26 issue of Science magazine. The disaster would lead to “trillion-dollar consequences,” as the hypothetical fire would result in contamination of an area larger than New Jersey and force mass relocations.

The scientists simulated a nightmare scenario in their ‘Nuclear safety regulation in the post-Fukushima era’ article. Supposing that an imagined fuel fire broke out at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania at the beginning of 2015, and taking into account the weather conditions at that time, they showed the devastating extent of potential contamination in the area. The accident would have led to the relocation of around 8 million people and would have cost $2 trillion in damages, according to Science Daily, citing the article.

The researchers say that this frightening scenario can be avoided if spent fuel is not housed in the pools which are used at almost all US nuclear plants to store and cool used radioactive material. Instead, it would be safer to transfer it to dry storage casks after it is cooled in pools for around five years, they say. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) previously considered such measures, but decided they would be too costly.

“Prepare diligently to inflict crippling losses on those who have disbelieved,” Hamza bin Laden, scion of the September 11, 2001, mastermind, says in a thin baritone that eerily echoes his father. “Follow in the footsteps of martyrdom-seekers before you.”

The recording, first aired May 13, is one in a string of recent pronouncements by the man who many terrorism experts regard as the crown prince of al-Qaeda’s global network. Posted just two weeks before Monday’s suicide bombing in Manchester, England, the message includes a specific call for attacks on European and North American cities to avenge the deaths of Syrian children killed in airstrikes.

She has already participated in Singapore's first ever fleet review, an international naval gathering with fleets from Asia and beyond to demonstrate their power. There is growing support in Japan for a more strident response to Chinese military assertiveness around Japanese waters and Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force has been increasingly active in the region.

It is all part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's determination to loosen constitutional strictures over the role of Japan's self-defence forces. The sea is where this is playing out right now.

The widening of Japanese naval operations in the South China Sea and beyond is also a response to a more pressing concern for Japan: China's own relentless drive to dominate the waters around Japan. Chinese critics of Japan's naval modernisation will point out that with a few minor adjustments, this ship could carry vertical take-off and landing fighter jets, including the F-35 stealth fighter.

The Pope met with “representatives of the world of work,” including businessmen, workers and unemployed persons at the Ilva steel plant in Genoa Saturday, fielding their questions and reflecting with them on a Christian view of the economy.

The Pope recognized that the essential value of work and employment is only possible when companies are sound and successful. Moreover, only an economically healthy society can keep a democracy afloat, he suggested.

“The world of work is a human priority,” Francis said, “and it’s also a priority for the pope. There’s always been a friendship between the church and work, starting with Jesus, who was a worker.” Time and time again Pope Francis has shown that he is more complex and unpredictable than both his critics and his boosters suppose.