Morning Canary: ICYMI News – Sunday Edition

Canary. Photo by 4028mdk09.

Update I

An update to the TNB story about the Russian aircraft accidentally shot down by Syrian forces last week asserting they were “responding to an Israeli airstrike” has moved forward with a Russian response “to send new anti-aircraft missiles to Syria,” according to a BBC report.

Russia says “the S-300 system” would “significantly increase the Syrian army’s capabilities.”

While counterparts in Moscow blamed Israel, Putin was said to have “took a more cautious tone,” however, he added, “Russia will respond by taking additional steps to protect our servicemen and assets in Syria.”

Russian Defence [sic] Minister Sergei Shoigu said the delivery of the S-300 system had been suspended in 2013 following a request from Israel but added: “Now, the situation has changed. And it’s not our fault.”

“In parts of the Mediterranean adjacent to Syria, there will be radio-electronic jamming of satellite navigation, onboard radars and communications systems used by military aircraft attacking targets in Syrian territory,” he said.

The systems will also be able to track and identify Russian aircraft.

BBC; September 24, 2018

Israel has avoided taking sides in the Syrian conflict, but after the incident, in a rare move, admitted to carrying out over 200 strikes on what they consider “a ‘military entrenchment’ of the Iranian Shiite proxy Hezbollah operating in Syria in an effort to disrupt ‘shipments of Iranian weapons to the Lebanese militant group” who are fighting alongside the Syrian government forces. Putin and Netanyahu have entered into what it being called “a gentleman’s agreement” of a “de-conflict agreement” with Putin “granting Israeli jets freedom to strike targets in Syria at will, on the condition that a sufficiently early warning is provided to Russia.” 

In was in one of these airstrikes Syrian forces fired back “indiscriminately,” the IDF said, and was the cause of the Russian plane being downed which killed all 15 people on board. IDF maintained they “followed well-established protocols with Moscow” in line with the de-conflict agreement and were back within their own airspace when the Russian aircraft disappeared from radar and placed blame squarely on the Syrian government, Iran, and their proxy Hezbollah.

Update II

Last weekend’s TNB ICYMI News story of Rob Goldstone, “the guy who set up the infamous 2016 ‘Trump Tower Meeting’ interview was indeed a teaser to NBC’s Cynthia McFadden’s interview aired on Monday, September 24 on TODAY.

NBC’s TODAY
YouTube
Published September 24, 2018

Rob Goldstone, the British music publicist who helped set up the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and members of the Trump campaign team, says he wishes he’d listened to “the little voice in his head” that told him it wasn’t a good idea. In his first interview since he testified before Robert Mueller’s grand jury, Goldstone sits down with NBC’s Cynthia McFadden to discuss the controversial meeting.

NBC’s TODAY; September 24, 2018

On the same day, Monday, Sept. 24th, the Wall Street Journal also ran a story on an interview they did with Goldstone.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said Mr. Mueller’s investigators were particularly interested in how the relationship between Mr. Trump and the Agalarov family began, as well as a 2013 trip by Mr. Trump to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. The Agalarovs sponsored the pageant, which Mr. Trump co-owned at the time.

The Wall Street Journal; September 24, 2018

In other news …. 

On Friday evening, the New York Times reported a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck triggering a powerful tsunami on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia striking city of Palu killing more than 400 people, injuring 540, with another 29 missing. Those numbers are expected to continue rising as relief efforts began. Many communities up and down the coast were also hit and are expected to add to the rising tolls.

BANGKOK — Indonesian officials said Saturday that nearly 400 people had been killed in a strong earthquake and a tsunami on the central island of Sulawesi. Rescue workers had yet to reach some areas thought to have been affected, and it was feared that the toll could still rise.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the Indonesian disaster agency, said 384 people were confirmed dead in the city of Palu, where preparations for a beach festival had been underway when the tsunami hit Friday evening, on the heels of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake. Mr. Sutopo said 540 people were injured and 29 were still missing.

But those figures applied to Palu alone, and there were other vulnerable coastal areas where communications were down. Officials had been unable to make contact with Donggala, a fishing community near Palu that was also reported to have been hit by the tsunami.

NYT; September 28, 2018

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The Associated Press reported on Saturday Washington District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled a lawsuit consisting of 198 Democrat Senators and Representatives led by Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) could proceed.

The group is suing President Trump and his Trump Organization alleging he has violated the emoluments clause, “which prohibits government officials from accepting benefits from foreign governments unless a majority of both houses of Congress consent,” saying that is not the case, that President Trump has not sought Congresses consent.

Senator Blumenthal told the AP, “This is a bombshell victory enabling us to move forward to hold the president accountable for violating the chief corruption prohibition in the United States’ Constitution,” … “President Trump has been violating it repeatedly with impunity and now we as members need to hold him accountable.”

The Plaintiffs’ lawyer Elizabeth Wydra who is arguing the case for the group said, “by recognizing that members of Congress have standing to sue, the court proved to all in America today that no one is above the law, not even the president.”

The ruling is not being decided on any merits of the case, only that plaintiffs’ have “legal standing” to proceed. It also did not look at the merit of the DOJ’s argument for a motion to dismiss. “That will come next,” the AP reports.

“The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”

This makes the second “unprecedented” ruling that a judge has made deciding a similar lawsuit could move forward.

A federal judge in Maryland ruled in July that a similar lawsuit against Trump filed by the attorneys general for Maryland and the District of Columbia could proceed, but only as pertained to earnings from Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel.

Associated Press; September 28, 2018

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