From CNN’s Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne and Nikki Carvajal

Three US Defense Department officials tell CNN that as of Tuesday night there is no indication they have seen that the massive explosions that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday was an attack, as President Trump indicated during a question and answer session with reporters at the White House.

The officials, who declined to be identified so they could speak freely, said they don’t know what the President is talking about.

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Explosion at port compared to atomic bomb going off, apparently caused by fireworks and chemicals catching fire; no Israeli involvement suspected

By Aaron Boxerman, TOI

A general view of the scene of an explosion at the port of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, on August 4, 2020 . (STR / AFP)

A huge explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 27 people and injuring over 2,500, according to the country’s health minister.

The blast shook buildings, shattered windows, sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky and left a wide swath of destruction across the city. There were thousands of casualties, with bodies buried under the rubble, officials said.
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and warn they could even damage the fight against Covid-19

By Ian Biorrell, DAILY MAIL

As I walked around the sun-dappled streets of Amsterdam, something felt strange in this world swept by fear and pandemic. There was laughter coming from barges sliding along the famous canals, clusters of cyclists clogged the streets, shoppers dipped into chic boutiques, the barber shops seemed busy and cafes served couples chatting over coffee.

I heard many voices of tourists in bars and restaurants, while even the seedier sides of this celebrated Dutch city had people strolling through them. It took me a moment to realise what was so weird. Then it struck me. It felt like I had stepped back in time, returning to the pre-pandemic normality of a bustling city filled with human beings whose faces were not covered by cloth.

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The Guardian is live blogging Here.

It is time for logic to take over from US Jews’ ludicrous loyalty to the Democratic Party.

By Nurit Greenger, ISRAEL HAYOM

All too many American Jews just do not want to see the writing scrawled across every wall. The future of American Jews is not going to be with the Democratic Party.

This is a call to the Jewish brain left lobe, tasked to produce logic, especially for American Jewry.

Dr. Guy Bechor is a public opinion shaper in Israel and beyond. In his interview on April 30, 2019 on Israel’s Channel 7-GPlanet he had a message for American Jewry: “Democratic-Jews will bring catastrophe to American Jewry. Some of the Democrat Jews are becoming extremely anti-Israel. They are the Jewish people’s enemies and are more dangerous than Iran.”

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Ankara’s bold maritime claims spur a new alliance of Greece, Israel, Cyprus and Egypt and cause American dismay

By Yarolav Trofimov, WSJ

The Leviathan natural-gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. Large finds in the Eastern Mediterranean have turned the region into a global energy source. Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/Press Pool

The contest over newfound gas riches in the Eastern Mediterranean has triggered a slew of rival maritime claims, pushing the region’s main powers—all of them America’s partners or allies—toward open confrontation.

On one side is a budding alliance of Greece, Israel, Cyprus and Egypt that benefits from the recent finds. On another is the Eastern Mediterranean’s biggest economy, Turkey, which is increasingly flexing its military muscles as it seeks to break its regional isolation.
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The former president effectively said that mob rule in what he thinks is a good cause is itself desirable and good.

by Conrad Black, AM GREATNESS

President Barack Obama’s address at the funeral of Representative John Lewis in Atlanta on Thursday, for the most part, was a moving tribute to a courageous pioneer in the civil rights movement. The total immersion in beatific praise that was accorded to the congressman throughout his prolonged itinerary between his physical death and actual burial was doubtless substantially deserved. (It does not allow for his dismissal of President Trump as “illegitimate,” and other reflections that were unseemly coming from a man so much praised for his graciousness and civility.)

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Turkey is sowing conflict in Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Qatar, planning to renew the Ottoman Empire which Erdogan intends to head.

By Yochanan Visser, INN

Recep Erdogan sees himself as leader of the Ummah Issam Haselman: Flash 90

By now it has become clear that Turkey is on the way to becoming a rogue state under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

After invading Syria twice to thwart the Kurdish independence dream and bombing northern Iraq including Mount Sinjar, which is home to what is left of the Yazidi minority in Iraq – under the pretext that the Turks were fighting “terrorists” of the PKK, the Kurdish Workers Party – Turkey is now on a crash course with Egypt.
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T. Belman.  The mainstream media occasionally report on the increase in crime and antisemitism, but rarely report on who is responsible for such increase. For instance, they never report on the religion of people who commit antisemetic acts. Best to keep that under the rug.

By Robert Spencer, JIHAD WATCH

Given the demographics of migrants in German, it is likely that many, if not most, of these migrant rapists are Muslims. This is why this sort of thing keeps happening: a survivor of a Muslim rape gang in the UK has previously said that her rapists would quote Quran to her, and believed their actions justified by Islam. Thus it came as no surprise when Muslim migrants in France raped a girl and videoed the rape while praising Allah and invoking the Qur’an. In India, a Muslim gave a Qur’an and a prayer rug to the woman he was holding captive and repeatedly raping. And the victim of an Islamic State jihadi rapist recalled: “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God…He said that raping me is his prayer to God.”
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T. Belman.  I believe sovereignty will be extended this month. The Plan tabled in January made demands on the Palestinians and offered no gestures. I don’t believe anything has changed on that front though there is talk of gestures.

After Netanyahu says application of sovereignty depends on US, ToI told ‘more discussions are required’ about a ‘package’ to sweeten pill for Palestinians

By Raphael Ahren, TOI 3 August 2020,

Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations Avi Berkowitz, Special Assistant to the President Alexa Henning, Senior Adviser to President Donald Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley walk out of the White House, May 8, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, via JTA)

Avi Berkowitz, the US administration’s envoy to the Middle East, is continuing to work on the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s peace proposal, including conducting meetings with interlocutors preparing for possible Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, according to a well-placed source.

More discussions between Jerusalem and Washington are needed for annexation to take place, as are gestures toward the Palestinians, the source said, but the move could possibly get underway in the near future. But after August ends, annexation becomes increasingly unlikely due to the approaching US elections in November, he added.

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Syrian war monitor says fatalities in Monday raids by unidentified aircraft were ‘Iranian-backed militiamen of Iraqi nationalities’

TOI STAFF

llustrative: Iraqi security forces prepare to open the crossing between the Iraqi town of Qaim and Syria’s Boukamal, in Qaim, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

At least 15 people were killed in a mystery air attack on a base used by Iranian forces and Iranian-backed militias, a war monitor group focused on Syria said Tuesday.

Citing “reliable” sources, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the intensive airstrikes continued from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m Monday, and hit the Imam Ali base near the town of Abu Kamal, in eastern Deir Ezzor region close to the border with Iraq.

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After China’s many transgressions over the past 50 years, the military containment of Chinese expansionism and Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping’s stated goal of world domination needs to be the highest foreign policy priority of the Free World.

by Lawrence A. Franklin, GATESTONE INSTITUTE  •  August 4, 2020

China’s Long March 10, a new Jin-class nuclear submarine, participates in a naval parade Shandong province on April 23, 2019. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)

• After China’s many transgressions over the past 50 years… the military containment of Chinese expansionism and Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping’s stated goal of world domination needs to be the highest foreign policy priority of the Free World.
• Countries could also be enjoined to cancel all commercial activity with China. Why fund one’s enemy and make him stronger?
• China’s walk-in-the-park takeover of Hong Kong — an illegal appropriation — undoubtedly served to whet China’s expansionist appetite.

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Fundraising round will support company’s first clinical trial of non-thermal plasma technology, which directly targets and kills cancer cells and subsequently triggers an immune response.

By ILH Staff

Cancer cells | Illustration: National Cancer Institute via Unsplash

An Israeli startup has raised $3.5 million in a Series A financing round and will be putting the money for use on the first clinical trial of its innovative new cancer treatment device.

CAPS Medical’s platform is designed to treat solid tumors through minimally invasive procedures, attacking cancer cells without damaging surrounding healthy tissue.
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The deal comes months after president Trump expressed interest in the country’s lucrative oil fields

MIDDLE EAST EYE  2 August 2020 21:09 UTC | Last update: 12 hrs ago

A US military vehicle patrols the oil fields in in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province in May 2020 (AFP)

The Syrian government on Sunday condemned an agreement between Kurdish-led forces in the country’s northeast and a US oil company, describing it as “theft” and an “affront to national sovereignty”.

By Kenneth S. Brower, BESA      August 2, 2020

IDF soldier of the 595th Field Intelligence Battalion stationed at Israel’s northern border, photo by Cpl. Eden Briand, IDF Spokesperson’s Unit

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Most published Middle Eastern military net assessments are based primarily on lists of units and equipment. Unfortunately, history proved that such lists are all too often incorrect. Even when they were correct, the overall assessments generally ignored the quality of personnel and/or equipment, as well as the extent to which rival defense systems could turn available financial, human, and material resources into actual military power.

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By Matthew Boyle, BREITBART

A new poll released this weekend shows President Donald Trump, the incumbent GOP president, has taken a national and battleground states lead over his Democrat challenger presumptive nominee former Vice President Joe Biden.

The survey, from the Democracy Institute commissioned by the Sunday Express newspaper, shows Trump leading Biden 48 percent to 46 percent. What’s more, Trump has opened up a bigger lead according to this poll in the crucial battleground states, meaning the president by this pollster’s estimates currently is projected to win 309 electoral votes—more than he did in 2016.

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