Week in Review: Plans for EU Army Actually Here!, Iran Courts Hamas, Merkel’s Days Numbered?, and Much More

Week in Review: Plans for EU Army Actually Here!, Iran Courts Hamas, Merkel’s Days Numbered?, and Much More

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images, Sean Gallup/Getty Images, iStock.com/Cristian Benítez, iStock.com/Alexander Gatsenko

Week in Review: Plans for EU Army Actually Here!, Iran Courts Hamas, Merkel’s Days Numbered?, and Much More

All you need to know about everything in the news this week

September 10, 2016

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Highlights:

More plans for EU army

  • European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini told EU leaders on Monday that she would present a “road map” for a European army that would take advantage of the post-Brexit “political space” in Europe.
  • Mogherini’s plans would empower Europe to “act autonomously” from nato.
  • “It might sound a bit dramatic, but we are at this turning point,” she said.

    • Iran courting Hamas

  • Iran’s love relationship with Hamas has been on the rocks ever since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011. Tehran now seeks to change that.
  • “The courtship of Hamas,” wrote the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs, “is part of Iran’s attempt to divide the Sunni world, improve its relations with the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood in the context of improving its relations with Turkey, and also to promote the possibility of a temporary political settlement in Syria with U.S.-Russian consent.”
  • Additionally, as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in 2008, “Iran is undoubtedly going to go after the West Bank. … Hamas terrorists (and weapons) are present throughout the West Bank, and there is little doubt that they are working toward getting control of this strategically located region of Israel. Iran’s ultimate goal is to overrun Jerusalem. The West Bank adjoins the city. The Iranians believe that if they can conquer Jerusalem, they can unite the Arab world under their control.”

    • Russian hackers targeting U.S. elections

  • Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told journalists on Monday that she is “really concerned about the credible reports about Russian government interference in our elections.”
  • While Clinton speculated that this hack might be an attempt by the Kremlin to help Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election, some security analysts say that Russian hackers might have a different objective: undermining the idea of liberal democracy.

    • End of Merkel?

  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union came in a humiliating third place in a vote in Merkel’s home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania on Sunday.
  • “This election—which was seen as a significant test ahead of next year’s general election—was all about her refugee policy,” wrote the bbc. Spiegel Online was even more specific: “[T]his state election was basically a vote about the chancellor, or more precisely, a Merkel-vote. This makes it so significant.”
  • “[M]any people are worried …. [T]here is an increasingly loud call among us for the strongman,” warned Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. “This is a complex situation in which the desire for pithy and easy answers is stronger. It is time for demagogues.”

    • Other news:

  • Thirteen people were shot dead in Chicago over Labor Day weekend. These deaths brought the city’s gun-homicide total up to 512 since the beginning of the year.
  • A Palestinian court ruled Thursday that local elections should be postponed. The elections were set for October 8, but they will now be postponed until at least December 21.

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