Iran has pulled no punches with regards to Washington, saying that while the US is urging talks, it simultaneously holds a gun at Tehran. It comes as tensions between two states continue to grow.

“The actions of American leaders in exerting pressure and launching sanctions […] while speaking of talks, is like holding a gun at someone and asking for friendship and negotiations,” Rasoul Sanai-Rad, a political deputy of the armed forces command said as quoted news agency Mehr.

US President Donald Trump has been recently insisting his country was not on a path of war with Iran and that the latter “will want to talk soon.” That said, two US Navy destroyers entered waters of the Persian Gulf on Thursday. 

Hawks in Trump’s administration have long been calling for tougher stance on Tehran. Last year, Washington unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and renewed sanctions on the country.

In recent days, the situation in the Middle East has dramatically worsened with the White House rushing the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the region ahead of schedule in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings”. The deployment was meant to be “a warning” to Iran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this week assured that neither Iran nor the US actually seeks war. Meanwhile, as tensions between Washington and Tehran gain ground, European leaders have urged both countries to measure their statements. That said, the bloc again expressed its regret on US sanctions targeting Iran as well as ditching the landmark nuclear accord (known as JCPOA), which Trump has been boasting as one of his major achievements.

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Two Indian airbases in Kashmir have been placed on high alert in response to a warning of planned terrorist attacks, reports say. One of the sites houses jets that participated in aerial combat with Pakistan in February.

Fresh intelligence data shows that terrorists plan to target two military sites on the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, New Delhi-based ANI reported on Friday, citing government sources.

The installations mentioned are Srinagar and Awantipora airbases, both in western Jammu and Kashmir State, bordering Pakistan. Security forces in and around the bases have been reportedly put on high alert.

The report did not specify the type of anticipated attacks or the terrorist groups involved.

Srinagar base is the home to the No. 51 Squadron of the Indian Air Force. Its MiG-21Bison fighter jets clashed with Pakistan’s F-16s during a dramatic flare-up of cross-border tensions in February.

Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was shot down and later returned by Islamabad to India, was stationed at Srinagar until he was deployed to a different site last month.

The aerial combat happened a week after India had sent jets into Pakistani territory to strike what it said were camps of terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which earlier claimed responsibility for attacks on Indian security forces and civilians.

New Delhi insists that Pakistan aids JeM and other militants to commit acts of terrorism against India. Pakistani officials strongly deny this.

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An airstrike by the NATO-led Resolute Support mission reportedly killed 17 police officers in Afghanistan on Thursday, injuring a dozen others in a ‘mistake’ during fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban.

The strike was conducted as Afghan police were fighting the Taliban outside Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province, with Afghan officials describing the incident as a “mistake”. Head of the provincial council Attaullah Afghan said 14 policemen were also wounded in the strike.

It wasn’t clear whether Afghan or US forces carried out the strike, the AP reported, although the Taliban claimed it had been US forces.

The provincial governor’s spokesman Omar Zwak said the strike was carried out by NATO Resolute Support mission forces in the Nahr-e-Seraj area, al Jazeera reports. DW reports Zwak said that only eight police officers were killed in the NATO strike.

Resolute Support is a NATO-led mission that advises and assists Afghanistan’s national security forces and consists of over 13,000 troops from the US, Germany, the UK, and other countries. NATO has not commented on the incident.  

Helmand’s Governor Mohammad Yasin said the air strike is being investigated.

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A ‘dense bullet’ of dark matter a million times larger than the sun may have plowed through the Milky Way, dragging stars out of line behind it, in an astrophysical model that explains a mysterious ’glitch’ in the galaxy.

The “galactic hit-and-run” theory explains the ragged gap discovered in GD-1, the longest stellar stream in the galaxy, according to Ana Bonaca, a fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who presented her theory at the American Physical Society last month. Instead of the single smooth-edged gap one would expect to find at the origin point of the stellar stream, GD-1 has a second gap, with a “spur” of stars hanging off, as if they were dragged by gravity behind some huge “dark impactor” barreling through the universe.

Why a gigantic blob of dark matter? “We can’t map [the impactor] to any luminous object that we have observed,” Bonaca explains, and “it’s much more massive than a star…a million times the mass of the sun.” That doesn’t rule out the possibility – “it could be that it’s a luminous object that went away somewhere, and it’s hiding somewhere in the galaxy” – but it would be hard to hide something 30 to 65 light-years across.

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With no visible culprit on which to pin the celestial fender-bender, then, and no tell-tale signs of a black hole like the massive one believed to lie at the center of the Milky Way, Bonaca believes a large “clump” of dark matter could be responsible for the tear in GD-1. Despite researchers’ frustrating inability to “prove” the existence of dark matter, most agree it’s there and that it greatly outnumbers luminous matter, holding galaxies together and clustering at their centers.

Bonaca was able to pinpoint the space oddity by studying a galactic map from the Gaia mission, the most complete rendering of the Milky Way, and cross-referencing it with observation through a multi-mirror telescope capable of distinguishing the direction in which stars are moving. This method created the most precise image of GD-1 yet, and she hopes to map more of the Milky Way in the hope of turning up other areas where similar dark behemoths might have trundled through – eventually mapping the location of these dark matter “clumps” throughout the galaxy.

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Two US Navy warships armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles have entered the Persian Gulf with a carrier strike group on stand-by off the coast of Oman, as Washington keeps accusing Tehran of planning to attack “American interests.”

Guided missile destroyers USS Gonzalez (DDG-66) and USS McFaul (DDG-74) transited the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday afternoon, the US Naval Institute (USNI) reported. Their sailing proceeded “without challenge” or “harassment” from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, despite boiling hot tensions between Tehran and Washington, the publication’s defense sources noted.

The two destroyers are now in close proximity to other American warships in the region sent by Washington earlier this month to tackle what the US called “heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against US forces and our interests.” No evidence has yet been offered to back up those claims.

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) Strike Group, with strategic bombers onboard, stands ready off the coast of Oman, while amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) was off the coast of the United Arab Emirate on Thursday, USNI learned. B-52 bombers have also commenced their air operations from the US base in Qatar as Washington continues to amass its forces.

While the US continues to insist that it does not seek war with Iran, on Wednesday, the State Department ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil. If the US were to launch a military attack from the sea, USNI News understands that “it would best be able to do so from outside of the Persian Gulf” to keep the American navy further out of reach of Iran’s anti-ship missiles.

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Tehran, which called US saber-rattling “psychological warfare,” says the Islamic Republic stands ready to defend itself against any act of aggression but does not consider a war with the US and its allies as “an option.”

“We are not interested in the escalation of tensions in our region, because if something goes wrong, everybody will lose, including Iran, including the US, including all the countries in the region,” Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-e Ravanchi told American outlet National Public Radio.

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The US has failed to prevent the Runit Dome temporary nuclear waste storage site from leaking into the ocean, leaving the inhabitants of Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands and cleanup workers with an array of health problems.

“There was never any lining put in that dome,” Ernest Davis, an Enewetak Atoll cleanup veteran, told RT, noting that the US government apparently had never planned to replace the temporary dome with a permanent containment structure that would be properly sealed from radiation leaks. “Nobody said anything about going back in and removing it or making it permanent. We were told that it was permanent.”

“I don’t think it was ever [the US government’s] intention to further clean up the island. It was too costly,” Brooke Takala Abraham, who lives in the Marshall Islands, told RT.

The United States detonated 43 atomic bombs around the Marshall Islands in the 1940s and 50s. The highly contaminated debris left over from the weapons tests was then dumped into a 100-meter-wide bomb crater on Enewetak Atoll. US servicemen sealed it up with a concrete cap to create a structure called the Runit Dome. The work, however, was allegedly carried out without any proper safety consideration for the cleanup crew.

“Those people who were involved in the cleanup… did not receive proper protection from radioactive elements,” Abraham said.

Furthermore, the government has never even bothered to study the long-term health issues of those exposed to radiation waste.

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“There was no radiation study with us. Certain ones would leave the island and they will have them fill a big jug with urine and I guess they were supposed to test it,” recalled Davis, who left just before the project was completed. “Some of the dosimeters that were given to us, the rad-badges – they just did not work. So we can’t say that any radiation study was done whatsoever.”

After a three-year decontamination process which began in 1977, the US government declared the southern and western islands in the atoll safe enough, allowing residents of Enewetak to return and the cleanup crew to go home. However, people who now live on the island say the dome began leaking almost immediately after the engineers left.

“The waste has always been leaking from the get-go. The cleanup of the entire atoll was not complete” before the native people were allowed to return, Abraham told RT.

Over the years, Enewetak’s population began feeling the deleterious effects of the radiation. “The radiation affects us on a daily basis. We have many illnesses in our community from cancers to weakened immune systems, and other noncommunicable diseases as well,” Abraham explained. “And they’re still struggling as well with the transgenerational effects of radiation.”

“Most of us have come up with some type of illness, whether it’s cancer… many of us have peripheral neuropathy on our feet without being diabetic,” Davis recalled, noting that many of the roughly 8,000 people involved in the decontamination process have since died. “They told us we would not be exposed to any more radiation than having maybe two or three x-rays a year, which was a total lie.”

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The feline who became a viral hit and sparked a frenzy of memes thanks to her iconic scowl has passed away, her owners have confirmed.

The cat, famous for its permanent angry expression, was seven years old and died from complications of a urinary tract infection.

Her real name was Tardar Sauce and she went viral in 2012 after an image of her iconic grumpy face was posted to Reddit and began circulating online. She soon became a meme and went on to have books published in her name, and even went on world tours meeting her fans.

Grumpy Cat has 8.5 million Facebook fans, 2.4 million Instagram followers and 1.5 million Twitter followers.

Owner Tabatha Bundesen explained that her distinct facial expression was a side-effect of feline dwarfism.

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The US has refused to endorse a new global initiative to combat “violent extremism” online citing First Amendment concerns, even as US-based tech firms have joined France and New Zealand in embracing and defending the censorship.

“We continue to be proactive in our efforts to counter terrorist content online while also continuing to respect freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” the White House said in a statement on Wednesday, explaining that it was “not currently in a position to join the endorsement” even though it supported the pledge’s “overall goals.”

“We maintain that the best tool to defeat terrorist speech is productive speech and thus we emphasize the importance of promoting credible, alternative narratives as the primary means by which we can defeat terrorist messaging,” the statement added.

Focusing on the “unprecedented” cooperation between governments and corporations, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern glossed over the US absence from the international agreement, insisting that Washington’s lukewarm response “demonstrates broad and unquestionable support for the call.”

French President Emmanuel Macron was less sanguine, vowing “we will do everything so that we are able to get a concrete and more formal commitment” from the US.

The “Christchurch Call,” unveiled Wednesday by Ardern and Macron, lays out comprehensive measures for restricting the spread of content deemed “violent extremist” or “terrorist.” While admitting that most countries already have laws governing such content, and most tech platforms already prohibit its sharing under their terms of usage, the proposal calls for closer cooperation between corporations, NGOs, and law enforcement, as well as between countries. 

Some “collaborative actions” recommended by the agreement include “investigating and prosecuting illegal online activity in regard to detected and/or removed terrorist and violent extremist content,” and “incident management teams” that can “broadly distribute information that is in the public interest” in response to “emerging or active events.”

Eighteen countries – including Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, and the UK – have signed on to the pledge, as have tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter. Facebook promised to ban users who violate its “most serious policies” from livestreaming and buying ads, while all five platforms pledged to develop tools, including AI and machine learning, to remove “extremist” content. 

“This isn’t about freedom of expression,” Ardern insisted last month in response to free speech concerns from New Zealanders, “this is about preventing violent extremism and terrorism online.”

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But the involvement of Macron has troubled some. One of his first acts as president was to make permanent an emergency law allowing individuals merely suspected of terrorist links to be placed under a form of house arrest for up to a year. Earlier this year, he pushed for social media platforms to ban users guilty of “hate speech” from their platforms for life, just a week after espousing a novel definition of hate speech that included anti-Zionism in its meaning. The Christchurch Call does not define what constitutes “extremism,” and its enforcement is entirely dependent on individual governments.

The proposal was named after the New Zealand city in which an Australian gunman murdered 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques back in March while live-streaming the attack on Facebook. In the aftermath of the attack, the government struggled to keep the footage from resurfacing on the web, imposing unprecedented restrictions on sharing and hosting the video including fines and even jail time.

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Ireland’s taxpayers have had to give an unusual bail out to the Lord Mayor of Dublin after the politician twice exceeded his yearly beer allowance, quickly burning through around 13,000 pints of Guinness.

Lord Mayor Nial Ring’s official residence, the Mansion House, was supplied with 120 kegs (around 10,560 pints) of free beer when his term began last June as part of a long-standing tradition with the manufacturers of Guinness, Diageo.

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However Ring used up the first allowance by January – far outpacing the two lord mayors before him, the Dublin InQuirer reported. Upon request, Diageo agreed to supply an additional 30 kegs of free Guinness to the city center venue.

The second top-up then ran out in March and Dublin City Council was forced to spend €15,280 of taxpayers money to purchase an additional 71 kegs, the Times Ireland Edition reported on Wednesday. The latest restocking means the mayor is on track to serve about 24,000 pints during his one-year term in office.

The beer is served to guests at various social events throughout the year but Irish people appear less than impressed with the Lord Mayor’s rate of pint consumption.

When the story first hit the headlines earlier this year Ring said he’s simply more sociable than his predecessors and claimed that the Mansion House has played host to a “huge number” of “parties in the evening time,” before adding that “no one is falling out” of the government building.

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“I’ve had over 16,000 members of the public into the Mansion House and 8,000 at evening events. I want to say thank you to the people of Dublin,” he said to Ireland’s state broadcaster RTÉ.

Aside from the unprecedented beer spending, Dublin City Council has also reportedly spent almost €20,000 on wine, more than the two previous mayors spent during their terms combined. Thankfully, spirits aren’t served in the Mansion House.

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Washington has suspended all US-based cargo and passenger air services between the US and Venezuela, citing “safety and security” conditions in the Latin American country amid attempts to oust the government in Caracas.

The move was announced by the US Department of Transportation on Wednesday. The decision was made with “the approval of the Secretary of State” and in cooperation with the Homeland Security Department, the DOT said in a statement.

From now on, all flights to and from Venezuela operated by both US air carriers and foreign companies are suspended due to conditions around the country’s airports “that threaten the safety or security of passengers, aircraft, or crew.”

The decision is yet another – largely symbolic – jab at the Venezuelan authorities, since the air service between the two countries was largely non-existent already. American Airlines was the last major US carrier to suspend flights to and from Venezuela, back in March. Others have halted their flights over the past two years.

The blanket ban on air service follows a decision of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), announced earlier this month, which prohibited US-certified aircraft operators and pilots from flying below 26,000 feet (8 kilometers) over the territory of Venezuela, citing “safety and security” reasons as well.

In January, the Trump administration recognized opposition politician Juan Guaido as “interim president” of Venezuela and called for President Nicolas Maduro to resign. Repeated attempts by Guaido to seize power have failed, however, and his latest bid involves inviting the US Southern Command to invade Venezuela.

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