Vice President Joe Biden said Monday night that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government was leading the country "in the wrong direction" hours after a bus bombing in Jerusalem wounded at least 21 people.
In a speech to the Israel advocacy group J Street, Biden criticized Palestinian leaders, but saved his harshest words for Israeli officials.
"I firmly believe that the actions that Israel's government has taken over the past several years -- the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures -- they're moving us, and, more importantly, they're moving Israel in the wrong direction," Biden said.
Biden did single out Palestinian leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, for declining to condemn specific acts of terrorism carried out against Israelis. The vice president said he didn't know whether Monday's explosion was a terrorist attack, but added that the U.S. condemns "misguided cowards" who resort to violence.
Israeli officials have called the bombing of an empty bus parked near other vehicles a terror attack, with Netanyahu linking it to the ongoing wave of attacks in which Palestinians have targeted Israelis in Jerusalem.
"We will settle accounts with these terrorists," Netanyahu said in a speech following the bombing. "We are in a protracted struggle against terror -- knife terror, shooting terror, bomb terror and also tunnel terror."
The fact that the bulk of Biden's criticism was reserved for Netanyahu reflected diminishing patience within the White House as President Obama's term nears an end. Tension between the longtime allies has been compounded by deep disagreements over Iran and a strained relationship between the two leaders.
Biden, who met in March with both Netanyahu and Abbas, said he came away from that trip discouraged about prospects for peace anytime soon. Still, he said the U.S. is obliged to guarantee Israel's security and to "push them as hard as we can" toward a two-state solution despite "our sometimes overwhelming frustration with the Israeli government."
"There is at the moment no political will that I observed from either Israelis or Palestinians to go forward with serious negotiations," Biden said.
As if to underscore the point, Israeli and Palestinian officials had a testy exchange at the United Nations Monday at a Security Council open meeting on the Middle East.
“Are you ready right now to denounce terror against innocent Israelis?” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon demanded of his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad Mansour.
Mansour refused, shooting back, “Shame on you! You are the occupier.”
"Shame on you!" Danon replied. "Instead of denouncing terror, you are encouraging it!"
Biden's remarks to J Street, a dovish group that frequently criticizes Netanyahu, came at the height of a campaign season in which candidates have been scrutinized over their adherence to traditionally stalwart U.S. support for Israel.
Ahead of Tuesday's primary in New York, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has sparked controversy by saying the U.S. should be even-handed and mustn't always say that Netanyahu is right.
In another dig at Netanyahu and his Likud Party, Biden singled out for praise Stav Shaffir, a young member of Israel's parliament and a Netanyahu critic from the left wing of Israeli politics.
"May your views begin to once again become the majority opinion in the Knesset," Biden said.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Adele Misses Out On Ivor Novello Nomination
Adele has failed to receive any nominations for this year's Ivor Novello awards which celebrate excellence in songwriting and composing.
The singer has sold over 17 million copies of her third album, 25, and is currently on a sold out global tour.
In 2012 she walked away with two Ivor Novellos; for songwriter of the year and most performed song for Rolling In The Deep.
The awards are highly respected because they are voted for by songwriters and composers.
Ed Sheeran and Rudimental's Bloodstream has been nominated in the best song musically and lyrically category, alongside Jamie Lawson and Wolf Alice.
James Bay, Jess Glynne and Years and Years will fight it out for the most performed work prize.
British rapper and grime artist Skepta will battle it out against a host of other first-time Ivor nominees in the best contemporary song category at next month's awards.
The musician, whose real name is Joseph Junior Adenuga, is nominated for his song Shutdown alongside Roots Manuva and FRED, who are up for their song Cargo.
The third nominees in the category are the writers of All My Friends - James Carter, Oliver Lee, Cass Lowe and Chance The Rapper.
Irish indie folk band Villagers are nominated for the album award along with Jamie xx and Supergrass lead vocalist Gaz Coombes.
Best original film score will see Ex Machina, Pan and The Duke Of Burgundy jockeying for top position.
The nominations are for works released in the UK during 2015 and the winners will be announced at Grosvenor House in London's Park Lane on 19 May.
Other awards such as the songwriter of the year, lifetime achievement, international achievement and Ivors inspiration award will be named on the night.
Adele fans will have to wait until the night to see if she will pick up any of those prizes.
'Best Days Ahead' After Brexit, Gove Says
Out campaigner Michael Gove has set out his "optimistic" vision for how the UK would look if it votes to leave the EU.
In a speech in London, the justice secretary said: "One of the most striking things about the debate on Britain's future relationship with Europe is that the case for staying is couched overwhelmingly in negative and pessimistic terms, while the case for leaving is positive and optimistic.
"Those of us who want to leave believe that Britain's best days lie ahead, that our country has tremendous untapped potential which independence would unleash."
Warning of "bogeymen" dreamt up by the Remain campaign, he mocked their predictions for the UK outside of the EU.
"The City of London would become a ghost town, our manufacturing industries would be sanctioned more punitively than even communist North Korea, decades would pass before a single British Land Rover or Mr Kipling cake could ever again be sold in France and in the meantime our farmers would have been driven from the land by poverty worse than the Potato Famine," he joked.
"To cap it all, an alliance of Vladimir Putin, Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump, emboldened by our weakness, would, like some geopolitical equivalent of the Penguin, Catwoman and the Joker, be liberated to spread chaos worldwide and subvert our democracy."
He also attacked a Treasury report, produced by George Osborne, which claimed the typical UK household will be £4,300 a year worse off by 2030 if we leave the EU.
"Yesterday's report from the Treasury is an official admission from the In campaign that if we vote to stay in the EU then immigration will continue to increase by hundreds of thousands year on year.
"As long as we are in the EU we cannot control our borders and cannot develop an immigration policy which is both truly humane and in our long term economic interests."
He also pointed out that warnings about not being part of the euro were unfounded, and that similar warnings about leaving the EU would be proved to be incorrect.
"We were told before when the single currency was being established, London would shrivel and die if we were outside the single currency.
"If we are outside the European Union but part of a free-trade zone, the ingenuity, the energy and attractiveness of London as a financial capital, will ensure our financial services continue to thrive."
One journalist in the audience asked whether Mr Gove was offended by Mr Osborne describing some Brexit campaigners as economically illiterate.
He replied: "No, George has called me much worse in private and in public."
Meanwhile, new additions to the Remain campaign emerged - with both the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) backing the argument to stay in the EU.
The NFU said: "On the balance of existing evidence available to us at present, the interests of farmers are best served by our continuing membership of the European Union."
Cathy Warwick, from the Royal College of Midwives, said that being in EU provides benefits for pregnant women.
"From the point of view of pregnant women (they) are, through EU regulations, guaranteed time off to attend antenatal appointments and that time off is paid," she said.
A new NUS survey also suggests students overwhelmingly support Britain staying in the EU - some 76% backing the Remain campaign, with just 14% in favour of Brexit.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney also warned that a vote to leave the EU may result in an extended period of uncertainty about the economic outlook.
The director of the European Union's law enforcement agency Europol said on Tuesday that a decision to leave would involve serious security consequences.
Rob Wainwright said: "If you put at risk any part of the framework for international police cooperation and intelligence sharing, that Britain currently relies on then there clearly is potential for consequences."
:: Using Sky Data we have come up with a list of the places in the UK most likely to vote to stay or to leave the EU.
People living in district of Tendring - which includes Clacton-on-Sea - are most likely to vote for Brexit.
Our correspondents are spending the day in the three European towns it is twinned with - Valence in France, Biberach in South West Germany, and Swidnica in Poland.
Islamic State 'Sending More Fighters' To Europe
Belgian authorities believe more Islamic State militants have been sent to Europe following last month's deadly terrorist attack in Brussels.
The country’s threat level remains at three, which means that an attack is possible and likely.
A spokesman for the country's crisis centre said: "There are indications that Islamic State has sent fighters to Europe and Belgium, the threat level which is currently at three will not go down."
The warning comes as the head of the European Union’s security agency says he’s "not entirely confident" all those involved in the deadly Brussels and Paris attacks have been arrested.
"That's because we have a fragmented intelligence picture of precisely who is involved and where they are," Europol's Director Rob Wainwright said.
He added that he was "certainly not confident" other militant cells are not planning another attack in Europe.
The Paris attack in November last year left 130 dead and many others injured.
Last month, one of those believed to be responsible for the attack - Salah Abdeslam - was caught alive in Brussels following a four-month manhunt.
Just weeks later, police in Denmark recovered a cache of weapons and arrested four suspected Islamic State terrorists.
News has revealed that members of the group were all named in the IS recruitment files that were leaked to the network in March.
Earlier on Tuesday, Spanish police announced they had arrested a Moroccan man on the island resort of Palma de Mallorca who was suspected of recruiting fighters for IS - or Daesh, as it is sometimes called.
A police statement said: "The accused had close contact with established terrorists involved with Daesh who are currently located in Syria."
Last year, Spain raised its anti-terror alert level to four out of a possible five.
Harry Greaves: 'Sighting' Of Missing Briton
A British traveller missing in Peru for more than a week is believed to have been spotted by a local.
Harry Greaves told friends he wanted to spend a day by himself on a mountain on 7 April.
They expected to see him on 10 April - but the 29-year-old did not return and a search of the mountain area was not successful.
The Lucie Blackman Trust, which supports Britons in crisis abroad, said on Tuesday: "Overnight we believe that there is a local who has sighted Harry more recently than the last sighting of him - he was heading towards Pisac.
"That is where the search effort is now being concentrated."
The charity added the sighting "is as confirmed as it can be".
"It was a local who came forward to friends over there and said this happened," a spokesman said.
The charity is meeting Mr Greaves' family later and will discuss the possibility of bringing in drones to assist with the search.
A crowdfunding page has raised nearly £21,000 to pay for the quest.
Mr Greaves, from near Oswestry in Shropshire, flew out to Peru on 20 February and had been travelling while visiting friends in Pisac, near Coscou.
The furniture maker's sister said it was "out of character" for him to not be in touch for so long.
Kanye West Lost All His Early Pablo Raps When North Flushed His Phone
When Kanye West was in the drawing-board stage of work on his album Life of Pablo, he stored his ideas on his iPhone, according to his wife Kim Kardashian. She shared this information over dinner with Kanye, her sister Khloe, John Legend, and Chrissy Teigen, in a scene that will be broadcast as part of the newest episode of Kocktails with Khloe.
With West looking on stoically, Kardashian went on to tell Legend and Teigen that their daughter, North, was inspired to flush the phone down the toilet.
“[The raps] couldn’t be retrieved,” Kardashian said. “We sent it to, like, four places.”
“No Apple Genius was genius enough,” West added.
This Is How Much Money You Can Take In Bribes Before the Chinese Authorities Execute You
How much is an errant Chinese official’s life worth? Three million renminbi, or $463,000, according to a statement released on Apr. 18 by Chinese judicial authorities. The legal clarification makes the death penalty applicable to anyone who either embezzles, or accepts bribes of, that sum or more. But in certain “especially serious” instances “with extremely vile impact,” such as when officials embezzle disaster relief funds, stealing half that can be grounds for death by firing squad.
Previously, the threshold for capital punishment was making away with “a huge amount of money” or “an extremely huge amount of money” —hardly the most precise of measurements. The new criteria, however, specify that “mitigating factors,” which might include cooperating with authorities, can lead to a two-year suspended death sentence and an escape of execution.
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has launched an anti-corruption campaign that has netted hundreds of thousands of officials. Last year, 16 senior Chinese leaders were convicted of bribery, including the nation’s former security czar Zhou Yongkang. But Zhou, who was accused of running the nation’s vast security apparatus as a personal fiefdom — and before that the nation’s oil industry and the populous province of Sichuan — was not sentenced to death for amassing more than $20 million in bribes, along with his family members. Instead, he was handed a life sentence last June. In 2013, Railways Minister Liu Zhijun earned a suspended death sentence for accepting the equivalent of more than $9.6 million in kickbacks.
China executes more people per year than any other nation, although Beijing says the number has dropped in recent years. There are 46 crimes in China that can earn defendants the death penalty. Last year, China dropped certain crimes from its capital punishment list, including counterfeiting money, weapons smuggling and fabricating rumors to mislead others during wartime.
Previously, the threshold for capital punishment was making away with “a huge amount of money” or “an extremely huge amount of money” —hardly the most precise of measurements. The new criteria, however, specify that “mitigating factors,” which might include cooperating with authorities, can lead to a two-year suspended death sentence and an escape of execution.
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has launched an anti-corruption campaign that has netted hundreds of thousands of officials. Last year, 16 senior Chinese leaders were convicted of bribery, including the nation’s former security czar Zhou Yongkang. But Zhou, who was accused of running the nation’s vast security apparatus as a personal fiefdom — and before that the nation’s oil industry and the populous province of Sichuan — was not sentenced to death for amassing more than $20 million in bribes, along with his family members. Instead, he was handed a life sentence last June. In 2013, Railways Minister Liu Zhijun earned a suspended death sentence for accepting the equivalent of more than $9.6 million in kickbacks.
China executes more people per year than any other nation, although Beijing says the number has dropped in recent years. There are 46 crimes in China that can earn defendants the death penalty. Last year, China dropped certain crimes from its capital punishment list, including counterfeiting money, weapons smuggling and fabricating rumors to mislead others during wartime.
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