United States sanctions on Iran, Cuba and Venezuela are illegal under international law, lead to a “denial of basic human rights” and amount to “economic starvation,” a UN rights expert has warned.

Idriss Jazairy, UN special rapporteur on sanctions and human rights, said in a scathing statement on Monday that US efforts at “regime change through economic measures” in countries like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela are “contrary to international law” and have “never been an accepted practice of international relations.”

Serious political differences between governments “must never be resolved by precipitating economic and humanitarian disasters” and “making ordinary people pawns and hostages” to them, the statement said.

Jazairy also challenged the notion that Washington’s current sanctions on Venezuela were “helping” people.

The high-level condemnation follows a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), which found that the sanctions have increased hunger and disease, exacerbated the economic crisis and led to the premature deaths of 40,000 Venezuelans between 2017 and 2018.

He also called out Washington’s decision to terminate sanctions waivers for buyers of crude oil from Iran, which harms not only Tehran but its major trading partners.

Jazairy said he was “deeply concerned” that one state, the US, can “use its dominant position in international finance” to directly harm not only the Iranian people but “everyone in the world who trades with them.” Along with ending the waivers, the Trump administration threatened any country continuing to trade with Iran with being slapped with sanctions themselves.

The sanctions on Iran had previously been lifted under the terms of the nuclear deal reached with the US, Russia and other European countries in 2015, but Trump tore up the deal in 2018 and has repeatedly urged European countries to do the same, so far without success.

The UN rights expert also slammed a US law which gives US citizens the right to file lawsuits against foreign companies profiting from properties that Cuba confiscated or nationalized after the 1959 revolution. This ignored protests by the EU and Canada and was “a direct attack” on European and Canadian companies in Cuba, the statement said.

Jazairy called on the international community to challenge the US “blockades” which he said constitute a “threat to world peace and security.” The international community must find peaceful and diplomatic resolutions to their political differences without letting the “arbitrary use of economic starvation become the new ‘normal’,” he added

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Most reactions to the plane crash at a Moscow airport on Sunday were of simple sadness and shock – but for Financial Times Moscow correspondent Max Seddon, the tragedy was a chance to gratuitously bash Russian authorities.

Seddon took to Twitter on Monday to chastise Sheremetyevo Airport authorities for the most nonsensical of reasons – because they did not instantly remove the destroyed aircraft from the tarmac after the crash landing which killed 41 people, including two children.

“A day after an Aeroflot flight burnt up at Sheremetevo, the airport has just left it there for everyone to stare at,” he wrote, in an apparent attempt to provoke some kind of outrage.

However, Seddon’s mentions were immediately filled with people reminding him that the plane had not been removed because the crash site would need to be thoroughly investigated. It obviously hadn’t occurred to the FT correspondent that immediately removing the aircraft from view would interfere with those efforts.

“In fairness, a proper technical assessment requires as little post-accident movement as possible…” writer Mark Galeotti wrote.

“I can’t believe they haven’t removed a possible crime scene involving the deaths of 40 people. It’s been a whole 12 hours,” another sarcastic comment read.

One tweeter surmised that Seddon’s rush to judgement stemmed from his general hostility toward Russia, coupled with a lack of basic knowledge about air crash investigations.

Another tweeter suspected that if the plane had been moved, Seddon would likely be accusing Russian authorities of an “attempted cover up,” and suggested that he should simply have opted for some “respectful silence” under the circumstances.

READ MORE: ‘Plane was burning like PLASTIC CUP’: Russian jet crash survivor recalls harrowing escape from fire

Perhaps Seddon’s attempt to spark some uncalled for condemnation of Russia isn’t all that surprising, though, since his Twitter bio states he is working in “soviet Russia.”

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid a surprise visit to Iraq to remind the country who its friends are, assuring Iraqi leaders the US is concerned about their “sovereignty” while warning them to steer clear of Iran – or else.

The US wants “to assure [the Iraqis] that we stood ready to continue to ensure that Iraq is a sovereign, independent nation,” Pompeo said, according to Reuters. Unless that independence involves Iraq making nice with Iran, that is, since his visit was prompted by “escalating activity” there, invisible to the naked eye but enough to provoke the deployment of a US carrier strike group and bomber task force to the region.

“There’s a long history in Iraq,” Pompeo told reporters, “and we want them to be successful, independent and have sovereignty and not be beholden to any country.” That history includes the US invading and devastating Iraq twice within the past three decades: during the 1990 Gulf War and during the Saddam Hussein government overthrow in the early 2000s. Washington still maintains a 5,000-strong military force in Iraq.

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Pompeo met with Iraqi President Barham Saleh, PM Adel Abdel Mahdi, and a handful of senior government officials in two separate meetings on Tuesday. “We talked to them about the importance of Iraq ensuring that it’s able to adequately protect Americans in their country,” Pompeo told AFP. “They both provided assurances that they understood that was their responsibility.” Pompeo’s warning that “any attack by Iran or its proxies on American forces in Iraq would affect the Iraqi government too” – a message he told reporters he planned to deliver – might have helped put the Iraqis in the cooperative spirit. 

Iraq’s relationship with Iran, once a sworn enemy, has improved dramatically since the second US invasion, with Iran helping to rebuild the shattered country economically and militarily while taking advantage of the power vacuum to influence the fledgling Iraqi government. Trade between the two countries increased ten-fold in the seven years following the fall of Saddam Hussein, and Iran is a major supplier of energy to Iraq.

“The Jordanians, the Saudis, the Emirates, all of the Gulf states want to see a free, independent, sovereign Iraq. So that’s the primary mission set,” Pompeo told his captive audience, who were instructed not to reveal their location until the plane had left Iraq, adding that “unfinished business deals” meant to “wean” Iraq off Iranian energy were also on the agenda. The US ended the last sanctions waivers allowing countries to continue purchasing Iranian oil in an effort to squeeze the nation economically, echoing similarly harsh sanctions placed on Iraq in the 1990s as a prelude to the second Iraq war.

Venezuela will prosecute six lawmakers who backed opposition leader Juan Guaido’s failed coup last week, the Supreme Court has ruled, hinting that more prosecutions were in the works for “high treason” and “conspiracy.”

The Venezuelan Supreme Court has announced the prosecution of six lawmakers on charges including treason against the fatherland, conspiracy, insurrection, civil rebellion, usurpation of functions, and public instigation, the body said in a statement issued on Tuesday. The document named Henry Ramos Allsup, a former National Assembly speaker, Luis Florida, Marianela Magallanes, Simon Calzadilla, Americo de Grazia, and Richard Blanco.

The Constituent Assembly subsequently stripped all six of their parliamentary immunity, plus Edgar Zambrano, who joined Guaido at the military base where he kicked off the botched uprising with a call for the military to abandon President Nicolas Maduro’s government last Tuesday. Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello added that three more lawmakers complicit in the coup had been identified and would also be prosecuted. The Assembly has promised to suspend the immunity of any other lawmakers found to be involved in the short-lived attempt to overthrow Maduro, which triggered two days of rioting and resulted in five deaths.

The criminal probe will be led by Attorney General Tarek William Saab. In addition to the prosecutions, Saab said, authorities have issued 18 arrest warrants against “civilians and military plotters” involved in the coup. 

US Vice President Mike Pence has threatened the Venezuelan Supreme Court with sanctions for doing their job, accusing the judges of acting as “a political tool for a regime that usurps democracy, indicts political prisoners and promotes authoritarianism.”

Pence also rewarded President Nicolas Maduro’s former spy chief, General Manuel Ricardo Figueroa, for becoming the highest-ranking member of the government to defect last week, holding him up as an example to the rest of the military, who have thus far proved profoundly uninterested in joining the US-backed opposition.

Guaido, who declared himself president in January, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity last month for violating a ban on leaving the country, but Maduro’s government has neither charged nor arrested him.

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Washington’s ambassador to Ukraine has been dismissed from service two months ahead of schedule. The development comes less than a month after the top Ukrainian prosecutor claimed she gave him a ‘do-not-prosecute list.’

Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch will leave her position on May 20, some two months ahead of the end of her tenure, the Ukrainian media and the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported earlier this week, citing sources within the American embassy in Kiev.

Although no announcement about the ambassador’s dismissal was made public yet, the news has already drawn attention of some prominent Democrats in the Congress, who rushed to declare the development to be part of President Donald Trump’s political games.

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“The White House’s outrageous decision to recall her is a political hit job and the latest in this Administration’s campaign against career State Department personnel,”said Eliot Engel (D-New York), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it is “clear that this decision was politically motivated.”

Both Democrats also claimed that the ambassador’s premature dismissal would amount to “harming American interests and undermining American diplomacy” at a particularly important period of transition of power in Ukraine.

Yovanovitch, who took the post of the ambassador back in 2016 under the Obama administration, does not have a particularly flawless service record, as just over a month ago she found herself at the center of a scandal after Ukraine’s prosecutor general Yury Lutsenko told The Hill that the ambassador actually gave him “a list of people whom we should not prosecute” during their first meeting.

At that time, the US State Department branded his claim “an outright fabrication.” However, several weeks before the prosecutor’s claim, Yovanovitch, bluntly called on Ukraine to sack its special anticorruption prosecutor in one of her speeches, in which she described the results of Kiev’s anti-corruption reforms in scathing terms.

Lutsenko backtracked on the claim of an actual “do-not-prosecute list” but told the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency that Yovanovitch was extremely vocal in her defense of several Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, who themselves were under investigation.

“I listed some so-called anti-corruption activists under investigation. She said it was unacceptable, as it would undermine the credibility of anti-corruption activists,” Lutsenko told UNIAN. “I took a piece of paper, put down the listed names and said: ‘Give me a do not prosecute list.’ She said: “No, you got me wrong.’ I said: “No, I didn’t get you wrong.”

It is unclear if this scandal contributed to the White House’s decision to sack the ambassador. The State Department said on Monday that Yovanovitch was “concluding her 3-year diplomatic assignment in Kyiv in 2019 as planned.”

Austria’s largest newspaper has received an unexpected response after its columnist claimed that the term “population replacement” was not appropriate for the Alpine land. Hundreds of people said it is the reality they live in.

Austria’s Kronen Zeitung daily has admitted that it received“hundreds” of letters from its readers in just over a week, after they said they felt like foreigners in their own homeland because of mass immigration.

The strong response was provoked by the paper’s columnist, Conny Bischofberger. In an interview with Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, she called the notion of “population replacement” a concept used by “far-right extremists.”

The term, which describes the gradual replacement of a native population by immigrants, is popular among those on the far-right. They use it to portray growing ethnic and religious diversity as a result of some deliberate malicious actions taken by “anti-popular forces.”

After she was confronted by people asking why they should not use the term, Bischofberger dismissed it in an explanatory piece as a conspiracy theory and a mere “feeling” that “may or may not correspond with the real general demographic developments.” However, she apparently failed to strike a chord with Kronen Zeitung readers, who sought to explain that this was a reality they have been living with for years.

“We were a happy household until 10 years ago. Then everything collapsed like a house of cards,” one person wrote to the newspaper.

“The mood in our condominium has deteriorated so much that we (65 and 68) are ready to move away to finally be able to live in peace again,” another couple wrote.

“Foreign-language parents with their children do not bother to speak our language… It’s sad, but one doesn’t feel well anymore,” another message read.

After receiving hundreds of similar messages, Bischofberger still insisted that, for many people, the notion of “population replacement” came in handy as it allowed them “not to think about the problem behind” mass immigration. However, she also admitted that “it would be cheap to defame all those people, who wrote to the Kronen Zeitung, as xenophobes, racists or far-right extremists.”

Those people were apparently asked “to accept too much migration” and did not receive enough attention from the authorities, the columnist said.

Austria took in one of the largest numbers of asylum seekers per capita during the refugee crisis. Some 150,000 people were accepted by the Alpine land since 2015 – which accounts for over one percent of its total population. Such developments gave rise to widespread anti-immigrant sentiment and brought a conservative coalition to power, which adopted a strict stance on migration.

Foreigners constitute 15.8 percent of the Austrian population, and 29.6 percent in the capital, Vienna, according to a 2018 survey. In February, a former MP from the conservative Austrian People’s Party, Marcus Franz, sparked a heated discussion on social media by saying that Austrian-born girls wear headscarves to prevent assaults from migrants on the streets of Vienna.

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The decision to rerun a local mayoral election in Istanbul has sparked scathing criticism in Brussels — ironically, from none other than the EU’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt.

Tweeting about the move, which was branded a “coup” by a Turkish opposition newspaper, Verhofstadt said it highlighted that Turkey was “drifting towards a dictatorship” and offered “full support to the Turkish people protesting for their democratic rights.” Along with the verbal slap on the wrist, he said that under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership, talks on Turkey joining the EU are “impossible.”

The irony in Verhofstadt’s outrage, is that the EU itself has a long history of either totally ignoring referendum votes — or just making people vote again until the ‘correct’ result is achieved. But that, of course, does not make the EU a dictatorship. It’s still a “bastion of hope, freedom, prosperity & stability” (as per another recent Verhofstadt tweet). Twitter users wasted no time in pointing out the “irony” and “hypocrisy.”

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“How dare [Erdogan] use EU tactics,” one irritated Verhofstadt follower responded, with another saying that the UK itself was currently “battling for its democracy” — a reference to EU officials (including Verhofstadt) who have frequently voiced their personal opposition to Brexit and the ‘Remain’ factions in Britain who have been calling for a re-run of the 2016 referendum.

While there may be at least some merit to the idea of Brexit referendum re-run after two years of failed negotiations and with more accurate information now available to British voters, the idea of simply re-doing EU-related votes is hardly a one-off.

Maybe Verhofstadt should take a trip down memory lane.

France voted ‘no’ to accepting a proposed ‘EU Constitution’ by 54.9 percent in 2005, but the outcome was ignored. The same thing happened in the Netherlands, which rejected it by 61.5 percent. The ‘EU Constitution’ was later repackaged into the Lisbon Treaty and presented to the French parliament where it was adopted, without being put to the people this time (much easier!).

This new Lisbon Treaty was then rejected by Irish voters in 2008, once again sending Brussels into meltdown mode, as the pact needed to be ratified by all member states before taking effect. So, of course, they made some tweaks and asked people to vote again — and got the ‘right’ result the next time. It wasn’t the first time Ireland was asked to re-vote after giving the wrong answer, either. The country also rejected the Nice Treaty in 2001 and accepted it in a second vote a year later.

Greece voted overwhelmingly to reject severe austerity measures desired by the EU in 2015 in exchange for a multi-billion euro bailout. Not long after, under pressure from Brussels, the country’s government agreed to implement even harsher methods — totally ignoring the will of the Greek people.

But way before all that in 1992, Danes, displeased with plans for a single currency, common European defense policies and for joint rules on crime and immigration, rejected the Maastricht Treaty — and were asked to vote again.

Ironically, many European voters voted ‘no’ to these treaties because they were worried that the EU would be turned into some kind of undemocratic superstate where the wills of individual countries and people would be ignored. Being forced to vote until you give the ‘right’ answer doesn’t exactly put those worries to bed. It’s part of the reason why the British voted for Brexit in the first place.

READ MORE: After Catalan crackdown, EU will look hypocritical preaching about democracy – Irish MEP

Then there’s Catalonia, where pro-independence leaders were thrown in jail for their role in holding an independence referendum in 2017. One tweeter scolded Verhofstadt and other EU leaders for believing that they have some “moral authority” over Turkey while abuse of pro-independence forces in Catalonia is ignored. “Our leaders are still in prison because they let citizens vote,” they wrote.

With a history like that, maybe it’s a bit rich for Verhofstadt to be going around lamenting the lack of democracy in other countries.

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The Pentagon will reportedly station four B-52 heavy bombers in the Middle East in response to what the White House called a “credible” Iranian attack plan on Americans or US allies in the region.

Two of the warplanes will leave the Barksdale Air Force base in Louisiana for Qatar on Tuesday, where the other two will join them some time in the coming weeks, unnamed Pentagon sources told CBS. They will be stationed at the US Central Command’s headquarters at the al-Udeid Air Base near Doha.

The move comes after the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group set sail for the Persian Gulf on Monday. White House National Security Advisor John Bolton announced both deployments over the weekend, claiming they are a response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” related to an Iranian attack.

Washington wants “to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force,” Bolton said.

Though Bolton gave virtually no details about the threat, reports suggest the intelligence came from the Israeli Mossad. They, too, left the matter vague.

A Pentagon official told the New York Times on Sunday that he was unaware of any attack plan, and that the threat may have emerged in the “previous 24 to 48 hours,” but the Israeli intelligence was passed to Washington weeks ago.

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While such deployment decisions are often made well in advance, hawks in the Donald Trump administration are capitalizing on the so-called “attack plan,” portraying the deployment as a rapid, spontaneous response to a foreign threat.

In a mocking tweet, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif slammed the deployments, pointing out that the ship movements had indeed been announced weeks ago.

“If US and clients don’t feel safe, it’s because they’re despised by the people of the region – blaming Iran won’t reverse that,” Zarif said.

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Terrifying footage shot inside the Sukhoi-100 shows its wings burning as the plane travels fast on the landing strip at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. Sparks are also seen from the jet’s window.

A man’s voice is heard calling for calm. In the end of the video somebody commands to get up and go to the exit.

An emergency on board forced the Aeroflot flight SU 1492, en route from Moscow to the Russian northern city of Murmansk, turn back to Sheremetyevo. 

Leaked CCTV footage of the landing appears to show the Sukhoi Superjet-100 aircraft  bouncing off the runway and hitting it with full force, as the engines burst into flames. At least 41 persons on board lost their lives.

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The Indian Armed Forces are to be reinforced by more than 460 cutting-edge Russian-designed T-90 tanks in the near future. RT takes a closer look at what the advanced war machine has in store.

The Indian Army is expected to purchase 464 upgraded T-90 ‘Bhishma’ main battle tanks between 2022 and 2026, the Times of India reporter citing sources within the Defense Ministry. The military hardware acquired under the $1.93 billion contract will be deployed to India’s border with Pakistan to enhance its “shock and awe” capabilities.

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The tanks will be assembled at the Avadi Heavy Vehicle Factory (HVF) from prefabricated parts supplied by Russia. Moscow has extended the manufacturing license for New Delhi in early April. The Indian Army already has around 1,070 T-90 tanks as well as 2,400 older T-72 tanks and 124 domestic ‘Arjun’ models in its 67 armor regiments.

So, what capabilities do these new tanks have?

1. Control over battlefield in online mode

One of the core features of the new T-90 variant is its highly sophisticated control system, which allows the crew to regularly get a full picture of the situation on the battlefield.

“The data are immediately transferred between the unmanned aerial vehicles, the command structure and reconnaissance units,” military analyst Sergey Suvorov told RT, adding that all the information about the battlefield is available at the tank commander’s computer.

The new system makes it easier for a tank unit to exchange information online and adapt to the constantly changing environment as well as forms a unified information network. This new systems ideally fits India’s new strategy that involves agile integrated battle groups (IBGs) centered around the T-90 tanks, along with a mix of infantry, artillery, air defense, signals and engineers, backed by attack helicopters.

2. Impenetrable defense

The Russian developers managed to greatly increase the tank’s defense characteristics. All manned compartments are equipped with a state-of-the-art anti-spar liner made from special cloth from aramid fiber. Tanks are also capable of surviving a head-on hit by any type of modern munition. At the same time, their radar visibility has been reduced, thus making it harder for the enemy to target T-90s.

The war machines are also outfitted with new universal explosive reactive armor systems ‘Relict’, which increase the tanks’ defense against hollow-charge and sub-caliber munitions. The new adjustments were made as the engineers studied the experience the Russian forces gained during the fighting against terrorists in Syria.

3. Guided missiles & high maneuverability

The tanks also received a brand new 125mm canon, which increase the shooting accuracy by 30 percent and effective shooting distance by 15 percent. The weapon is now capable of using a whole range of modern high-precision munitions, ranging from preprogrammed remote detonation high-explosive munitions to even guided missiles, according to the manufacturers.

Despite all these upgrades, the tank’s weight remained the same and is not expected to exceed 50 tons, making sure the war machine would still have high speed and maneuverability characteristics.

4. Howling success

T-90 is considered to be one of the most popular tanks on the international arms market. Russia has sold more than 1,500 these tanks over 20 years. Apart from India, the vehicles were also acquired by seven other nations, including Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria and Uganda.

Egypt is also planning to start assembling T-90 under Russia’s license starting in late 2019. India’s neighbor and regional rival Pakistan is also discussing a deal with Moscow, which would involve purchasing some 360 such tanks.  

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