Russia will sell Turkey four divisions of the S-400 surface-to-air missile system worth $2.5 billion under a deal agreed between the two sides earlier this month, says the head of Russian conglomerate Rostec.

Sergei Chemezov told the Kommersant daily on Wednesday that Turkey would pay 45 percent of the cost in advance while Russia would provide loans to cover the remaining 55 percent, adding that the Russian and Turkish finance ministries had already completed talks on the loans.

He added that Moscow would begin the first deliveries in March 2020.

Turkey is the first NATO member state to acquire the advanced S-400 missile system, the Russian official said.

The deal was discussed between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the former’s visit to Ankara on December 11.

The deal comes as Turkey has been establishing closer relations with Russia after its ties with Western and European governments soured following a crackdown in the country over the July 2016 coup attempt.

NATO originally reacted skeptically to the decision, saying the system was not compatible with its equipment.

However, the Pentagon said recently that Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 system, the most significant deal Ankara has signed with a non-NATO military supplier, was generally “a good idea” as it was inter-operable with the military alliance’s other systems.

The S-400 is Russia’s latest surface-to-air missile defense system.

It has a range of 400 kilometers and can track up to 300 targets, including aircraft, drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, simultaneously.

Russia has also agreed a deal with Saudi Arabia to supply the S-400 to Riyadh.

The agreement was signed during Saudi Arabia’s King Salman’s visit to Moscow in October.

A number of other was also signed during the King Salman’s trip, the first by a Saudi monarch.

Source: Presstv

US First Lady Melania Trump has ordered the removal of an iconic tree that former President Andrew Jackson planted in 1828 in honor of his late wife.

Melania, the wife of incumbent US President Donald Trump, ordered on Tuesday that the 200-year-old Jackson Magnolia tree be cut down later this week, citing a safety hazard after reviewing historical documents and a relevant report made by specialists.

Some experts said the tree located on the west side of the White House had decayed to a point where it could no longer be safely preserved.

 

“The overall architecture and structure of the tree is greatly compromised and the tree is completely dependent on the artificial support,” read documents obtained by the CNN.

“Without the extensive cabling system, the tree would have fallen years ago. Presently, and very concerning, the cabling system is failing on the east trunk, as a cable has pulled through the very thin layer of wood that remains. It is difficult to predict when and how many more will fail,” they noted. “We understand this is a historic tree, and all measures have been used to save it to this point in time. While we cannot comment on the need to preserve the tree as long as it stands, we believe eventually, the tree will fail.”

 

Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s spokeswoman, said in an interview with the Associated Press that Melania had discussed options with White House staff and reviewed an analysis by the US National Arboretum before deeming that the tree was a safety risk.

“After reviewing the reports, [Melania Trump] trusted that every effort had been made to preserve the historic tree, and was concerned about the safety of visitors and members of the press who are often standing right in front of the tree during Marine One lifts,” Grisham said.

The spokeswoman said a “large portion” of the tree will be removed, and that the wood and seedlings from the tree will be preserved for the future.

Another Jackson Magnolia is expected to be planted in its place.

The Jackson Magnolia is the oldest tree on the White House grounds and has appeared in the background for numerous historical events, also featuring on the $20 bill from 1928 to 1998.

The tree was the former president’s tribute to his wife, Rachel Jackson, who died days after the election.

Source: Presstv

Some people within the US President Donald Trump’s cabinet have discussed removing their boss from power, a close ally of the Republican president claims.

Roger Stone, a long-time associate of Trump, said during an interview over the weekend that the rebels were plotting to out Trump by invoking the 25th Amendment of the US constitution.

“I have sources,” Stone told C-SPAN. “And yes, I believe there are some who have had this discussion. This is both outside the cabinet and in.”

“There is a plan afoot that is broader than just the cabinet. The 25th Amendment requires a majority of the cabinet and the vice president [to remove the president],” he added, noting that he would “probably report that fully at some point.”

The 25th Amendment defines outlines for the transition of power in case the president is unable or unfit to serve.

Since ratification, the amendment has been invoked six times, with the most far-reaching use being in 1973, when then President Richard Nixon nominated Representative Gerald Ford to replace then Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, who had resigned.

Continuing his wild statements, Stone said removing Trump was a fallback plan for “the establishment.”

“And I have always thought this is plan B for the two party duopoly that has run this country into the ground,” he argued.

“This is not a conspiracy theory… There are members of the cabinet who have had this discussion. Let me just leave it at that,” the conservative lobbyist continued.

Trump and his team are currently under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has been appointed to see into reports that the president has “colluded” with Russia before and after winning last year’s election.

While millions of people have signed various online petitions calling for Trump’s removal, the prospect of an impeaching seems far-flung given that Republicans maintain majority in both chambers of Congress.

Source: Presstv

Culled from The White House

Five people were killed when a city bus ploughed into a pedestrian underpass in western Moscow on Monday, traffic police said.

“A bus drove into a pedestrian underpass,” a traffic police spokesman, Artyom Kolesnikov, told AFP.

“According to preliminary information, five people died.”

There were also unconfirmed reports that some 15 people had been injured.

Footage broadcast on national television showed a bus driving down the stairs, running over several pedestrians.

The incident happened on Kutuzovsky Avenue, near the Slavyansky Bulvar metro station in the western part of the Russian capital.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident but Russian news agencies said that the driver had been detained.

The Interfax news agency said investigators were looking into whether the incident had occurred as a result of a technical fault with the bus.

“There are dead and wounded,” tweeted Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin. “We are providing emergency aid,” he said, offering condolences to families of the victims.

(Source: Agencies)

The soldiers of 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, are serving in a support role for the Cameroon military’s fight against the violent extremist organization Boko Haram.

However, “Warriors” of 1-87 IN also have to beware of foes that take the form of sicknesses or diseases like malaria or the flu.

The flu vaccination is an annual Army requirement that helps control this common contagious adversary according to Capt. Joshua Randles, the 1-87 IN physician assistant and native of Argyle, New York.

“Flu vaccination reduces the chance of getting influenza,” said Randles, “and if a Soldier happens to get influenza, the vaccine is shown to reduce the severity of the illness.”

“This is important in an austere environment where evacuation may take days,” Randles said.

All vaccinations and medicines arrive here on military flights that rotate in and out of this region. However, flights may become delayed or assigned to other missions causing a lull in deliveries.

As a result, 10th Mountain soldiers here did not receive the vaccinations until December 20.

“We have been waiting for about six weeks for the vaccinations,” said Sgt. Clayton Young, 1-87 IN medic from Rochester, New York.

The night the vaccinations arrived, soldiers lined up to receive their flu shot.

The Warrior medic team was able to vaccinate 120 soldiers in about three hours inoculating a significant number of the service members in need of the flu shot.

Source: dvidshub

A report has exposed how certain Arab states have continued to shower British politicians with luxury gifts in an attempt to curry favor and buy their support.

Those states include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, and Oman, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal reported on Saturday, citing newly released UK government data.

Prime Minister Theresa May, whom Saudi Arabia has conferred with the Order of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, has received several gifts from the kingdom, including an ornament, a clock, and a medal, the report said.

Saudi Arabia “has splashed out on 20 luxury Christmas hampers for Conservative Party ministers since 2010,” the MEE further reported.

The United Arab Emirates has also been providing British ministers with various gifts.

The emirates has offered luxury Christmas hampers, rugs, and a $2,600 designer briefcase to Tobias Ellwood, Britain’s defense minister. In December 2012, the country’s government bought former British foreign secretary William Hague a rug and Alistair Burt, the UK’s Middle East minister, both a hamper and an Ipad.

In July, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry gave Burt a Rolex watch worth nearly $8,000.

Incumbent Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was also once given a $400 box of Wagyu meat by the King Abdullah II of Jordan. Another Arab ruler gave the British minister tins of Caspian caviar, worth more than $1,000 in total, when they met the same month.

Since 2015, Britain has been providing state-of-the-art weaponry and logistical support to Saudi bombardment of Yemen, which also enlists the Emirati military. More than 12,000 have died since the bombing started.

The MEE went on to cite rights campaigners as blasting the trend of the Arab showering of the politicians with gifts as a means of influence peddling by governments, some of whom have incurred huge international outcry over the human rights abuses at home and abroad.

“These gifts aren’t being given out of any sense of generosity. They are being given to buy friends and increase influence,” said Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). “If repressive regimes and brutal dictatorships are giving gifts to MPs, then it is time for those politicians to think about the messages they’re sending out, and to stop offering such intimate political support to human rights abusers,” he added.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said, “Many of these regimes have consistently repressed democracy and violated human rights. These lavish gifts are a transparent ploy to influence the UK’s foreign policy so that it favors the regimes rather than the people of the [Persian] Gulf.”

Culled from Presstv

African migrants attempted to scale a 6-meter fence that separates Morocco from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, early on Saturday morning.

According to local reports, the refugees tried to scale the two barriers located at a halfway point along the 8.2 km (5 mile) perimeter fence at 06:00.

Moroccan border police managed to stop the majority of the refugees, apart from a small group of 33 who could be stuck on the barbed wire barrier between the countries.

Once the Spanish Civil Guards were aware of their presence, the group were forced to retreat to the Moroccan side.

This was the third attempt at forced entry in the past 24 hours, after 700 and 300 migrants made separate attempts at the northernmost part of the border.

The genocide being committed against Southern Cameroonians has been described by religious leaders as a systematic policy but the international community has remained silent on the plight of the persecuted Anglophone minority. It is a deliberately created crisis to force Southern Cameroonians to flee from their homeland and its implementation involves all structures of the so-called democratic government of President Paul Biya, the Cameroon armed forces and the extremist French Cameroun political elites.

The ongoing crackdown against Anglophones in Manyu Division is another ethnic cleansing campaign, targeting a whole group of people, who are even being denied of their right to participate in any political process in Cameroon. The President Biya scorch-the-earth policy is succeeding as thousands and thousands of Southern Cameroonians are being driven out of their homes due to the butchering of innocent people.

The sufferings of the Manyu population who have managed to flee to neighboring Nigeria is nothing in comparison to those who have been left behind, who are unable to move [since] they’re too old or don’t have the finances to foot the transportation bills.

The United Nations, African Union and the European Union including Ecowas and the Commonwealth are all dragging their feet while people are dying in large numbers in Mamfe, Akwaya and Eyumojock Sub Divisions. Yet another Rwanda in the making

A Roman Catholic Bishop has been quoted as saying that what is going on in Southern Cameroons is a massive, state-sponsored genocide. The President Buhari administration in the Federal Republic of Nigeria has denied protecting Southern Cameroonians at the borders in Ikom and Obudu and the Nigerian government has also denied Southern Cameroonians the right of defending themselves…

It is evidently clear that the Commonwealth have received standing instructions from Paris that everyone should wait for the Biya regime to finish up the job and completely, ethnically cleanse and commit the genocide and finish it in Southern Cameroons.

The Cameroonian army recently launched yet another heavy-handed crackdown against Southern Cameroonians in Kembong village, using an armed attack on a military posts as the pretext.

Over that past one year, Cameroon government troops, apart from raping, have been committing killings, making arbitrary arrests, and carrying out mass arson attacks to destroy houses in predominantly-Anglophone villages in West Cameroon

More than 30,000 Southern Cameroonians have so far fled to neighboring Nigeria.

Source: Cameroon Intelligence Report

President Donald Trump says the United States has “foolishly spent $7 trillion in the Middle East,” stressing it was time to work “in a bipartisan fashion” instead to “rebuild our country.”

“At some point, and for the good of the country, I predict we will start working with the Democrats in a Bipartisan fashion,” Trump tweeted Friday. “Infrastructure would be a perfect place to start.”

Trump had threatened before the vote that Washington would cut foreign aid to countries that voted against his decision at the General Assembly.

Countries “take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us,” the president said Wednesday, adding “we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had echoed the same sentiment ahead of the vote, saying the US would “remember” the nations that voted “yes” at the General Assembly.

Haley noted that the US was the “single largest contributor” to the world body but the latest anti-Israeli measure could alter that.

Defying the threats, the UN voted 128-9 to make Trump’s decision “null and void.” Thirty five countries abstained and 21 were no-shows.

Trump appears to be turning the snub into an opportunity at home by stressing the need to spend more on America’s aging infrastructure.

He is expected to unveil his much-awaited 70-page infrastructure proposal next month, relying on a mix of federal, local and private spending.

Trump has also used Monday’s deadly train derailment in Washington state to call for more spending on infrastructure.

“The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly,” he tweeted after the accident.

“Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!”

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had promised to deliver a $1 trillion infrastructure plan to improve rebuild roads, bridges, airports and other public works in the country.

Source: Presstv