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RAIR Foundation A Coptic Christian woman, Ranya Abd al-Masih (“servant of Christ”), 39, disappeared in Egypt on April 22, 2020, only to resurface days later in a recorded video. The beloved mother was forced to dress in a black niqab in the video, claim she converted to Islam, and express she did not want any contact with her husband, three children, or family members anymore. A few days after her family alerted Egyptian state security, of her disappearance, a disturbing video of the devout Christian mother covered in oppressive sharia garb and pledging her allegiance to Islam emerged. Ranya claims...

Obama Used National Security to Spy on Americans Opposed to Islamic Terrorists Obamagate redefined opposition to Islamic terrorism as a national security threat. Mon Jun 8, 2020 Daniel Greenfield 55 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. We know when Obamagate ended, but we don’t know when the policy of spying on Americans began. The tangled roots of the domestic surveillance of political opponents by the NSA predate the alarmism about Russia. Tracing them back into the fetid swamp takes us not toward...

Cyprus, Greece, Israel to sign pipeline deal on Jan. 2 By DEMETRIS NELLAS December 22, 2019 ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The leaders of Cyprus, Greece and Israel plan to sign an agreement early in the new year for the building of the eastern Mediterranean natural gas pipeline, the Greek prime minister’s office announced Sunday. The agreement will be signed in Athens on Jan. 2 by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As now planned, the pipeline will run across the Mediterranean from Israel’s Levantine Basin offshore gas reserves to the Greek...

The announcement Thursday that the partners of the Leviathan gas reservoir will invest $3.75 billion in its development is a devastating blow to the BDS movement, Eli Groner, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. The development of Leviathan, which is scheduled to take about three years, constitutes both the largest energy project and financial investment in Israel in the country's history.

Putin and Netanyahu to strike deal on Leviathan gas field The Australian October 20, 2015 12:00AM Russia wants to be the major partner in Israel’s offshore ­Leviathan natural gas field in the eastern Mediterranean, a top ­Israeli foreign affairs analyst said in Sydney yesterday. Ehud Yaari, the senior Middle East commentator for ­Israel’s Channel Two news, said “everybody regrets” a deal was not done with Woodside and that until now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ruled out a Gazprom deal. Gazprom bid for a stake in the project in 2012 but was beaten by Woodside, which pulled out of...

Israel made another discovery off its coast. The newly discovered field, Royee, may hold up to 3.2 Tcf of natural gas according to a statement made by the Israeli partners in the field Ratio and Israel Opportunity who hold respectively 70%, and 10% stakes. The remaining 20% of the field are held by Edison. Royee is located about 150 kilometers offshore Israel close to its maritime borders with Cyprus and Egypt. The field’s size is yet to be confirmed, but current estimates suggest it is the third largest field discovered to date in Israeli waters after the Leviathan discovered by...

On May 3, Moscow criticized Turkey’s plans to explore natural gas deposits around the divided island of Cyprus, under the protection of Turkish naval and air power. Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s chief spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, cautioned Turkey that its actions “may exacerbate the situation on the territory of Cyprus” (Rossiskaya Gazeta, May 4). The Greek Cypriots and Israel are coordinating their plans to develop offshore gas deposits and export the product in partnerships with international companies. One export route under consideration would run via mainland Greece into Europe. The Republic of Cyprus, Greece and, recently, Israel are all involved in...

While the Middle East may have a reputation for instability and occasional violence, there's no denying the vast riches it has to offer patient investors. Just months after the announcement of $1 trillion worth of minerals in Afghanistan comes word of oil discoveries in Israel... Israel may finally be able to tell its Middle Eastern neighbors where they can stick their oil — something the United States has wanted to do for years. In one of the most sought-after parts of the world, 4.3 billion barrels of oil could be sitting in the Leviathan project beneath the Mediterranean, according to...

Defense Minister Benny Gantz orders IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi to “step up preparations for the IDF,” his office says, ahead of the potential annexation of portions of the West Bank. “Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz instructed the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, to step up preparations for the IDF ahead of diplomatic efforts on the agenda in the Palestinian arena,” the statement reads. Gantz says he also plans to appoint a point-person to coordinate between the different government bodies involved in the process. “In addition, a joint team will be formed that will...

Egypt has announced an anti-Turkey alliance that includes Greece, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France to confront Turkish moves in Libya and the Mediterranean. The announcement was made during a virtual meeting with the foreign ministers of these countries on May 11. In a joint statement issued shortly after the meeting, the five-party alliance said it will focus on confronting the Turkish moves in the territorial waters in Cyprus, where Turkey has been carrying out “illegal” excavations in the Mediterranean under Cyprus sovereignty. The alliance also condemned Turkey’s escalated violations of Greek airspace.  The European Union condemned May 16...

The warplanes, a mix of at least 14 MiG-29 fighters and Su-24 fighter-bombers, appear to have taken off from a base in Russia sometime in the middle of May and flown to Hmeimeem, Russia’s airbase on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. There they were repainted, their Russian Federation Air Force markings obscured, before flying more than 1,200 miles and landing in eastern Libya, in territories controlled by Russia’s ally, strongman-in-waiting Khalifa Haftar. The deployment, which the Pentagon revealed last week and Moscow denied, is the latest in a series of escalations that have seen all types of weapons — Turkish and Emirati...

Microscopic signatures of malting could help reveal which prehistoric people had a taste for beer. Ancient beer is difficult to trace, because many of beer’s chemical ingredients, like alcohol, don’t preserve well (SN: 9/28/04). But a new analysis of modern and ancient malted grain indicates that malting’s effects on grain cell structure can last millennia. This microscopic evidence could help fill in the archaeological record of beer consumption, providing insight into the social, ritual and dietary roles this drink played in prehistoric cultures, researchers report online May 7 in PLOS ONE. Malting, the first step in brewing beer, erodes cell...

"We won't be staying in our cars and you don't have to wear a mask. There may be a lot of people giving hugs and lots of hand shaking going on. Doing our part to strengthen the herd immunity against Covid-19" Libertarian activist Ammon Bundy announcing a worship service..... Meanwhile the federal Bureau of Land Management is investigating after a complaint from hikers about Ryan Bundy building irrigation infrastructure on land traditionally used by rancher Cliven Bundy but claimed as federal land now designated as the Gold Butte National Monument..... Also in the linked story the US Ninth Circuit Court...

National Geographic today released never-before-seen footage from within ancient Egypt's first known fully intact funeral home. In conjunction with Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, a team of archaeologists led by Dr. Ramadan Hussein from Germany's Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, uncovered the burial complex, dating back to 600 BC, deep beneath the sands at the Saqqara necropolis less than an hour's drive south of Cairo. The new, four-part series KINGDOM OF THE MUMMIES produced for National Geographic by BBC Studios follows the team as they explore the subterranean chambers and open four sealed, 2,600 year-old sarcophagi to unlock secrets...

The United States stopping a United Nations Security Council vote on the coronavirus situation citing the inclusion of "false narratives" from China.... The United States tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists.... The unemployment rate in the United States was 14.7 percent for April...... Tesla trying to resume work at its factory in Fremont, California.... Ohio State University is paying out some 41 million dollars to settle lawsuits with 162 survivors of sexual abuse by a former school doctor.... (Warning: Disturbing Content) The woman who's accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 is ready to take a lie detector...

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced that the newly discovered chamber contained four wooden coffins in poor state of preservation. Dr Ramadan Badri Hussein, archaeological supervisor at the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs, said that one of the coffins belongs to a woman called Didibastett. She was buried with six canopic jars, which contradicts with the custom in ancient Egypt which was to embalm the lungs, stomach, intestines and liver of the deceased, and then to store them in four jars under the protection of four gods, known as the Four Sons of Horus......

An American schoolteacher imprisoned in Egypt for nearly a year without trial has been freed by Egyptian authorities and returned home to the United States, the State Department said Monday. Reem Desouky, 47, a dual Egyptian-American citizen and single mother from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was arrested on arrival at the Cairo Airport with her teenage son in July 2019 and hauled off to Qanatir Prison outside the capital. She faced charges of running a Facebook page critical of the Egyptian government. Security officials had confiscated her phone and interrogated her about her political opinions and social medias posts, according to her...

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the ruins of an ancient fortress dating to the 26th Dynasty, the last dynasty in which native Egyptians ruled before the Persians conquered the country in 525 B.C., according to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. Researchers uncovered parts of the mud-brick stronghold -- including the northeastern and southeastern towers -- at the Tell El-Kedwa site in North Sinai. Previously, in 2008, archaeologists had excavated the military citadel's eastern wall, but the fortress is so large, it took until now to unearth more of its remains... Curiously, the old citadel also has chambers full of sand,...

An ancient cave decorated with distinguished engravings depicting scenes of animals has been discovered at Wadi Al-Zulma in North Sinai. "The newly discovered cave is the first of its kind to be discovered in the area," said Aymen Ashmawi, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities sector at the Ministry of Antiquities. Ashmawi explained that the scenes carved inside the cave are completely different from those found in South Sinai, having a special artistic style that resembles raised relief in execution. Studies are underway to determine their date. Hisham Hussein, head of the discovery mission, said that most of the discovered...

BERLIN (AP) — German police raided five sites linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, as authorities announced Thursday that they were banning activities by its political wing in Germany. The raids, intended to prevent evidence about possible front organizations being destroyed, took place at mosques and community centers in Berlin, Bremen, Muenster, Recklinghausen and Dortmund.