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Get you up to speed: Replay: JD Vance addresses US-Iran talks
JD Vance addressed talks between the US and Iran in Switzerland aimed at ending the war in the Middle East. Immediate outcomes from these discussions have not been disclosed.
Talks between the US and Iran are taking place in Switzerland, focusing on conflict resolution in the Middle East. The status of the discussions remains under wraps, with no timeline announced for their conclusion.
JD Vance emphasised the need for a diplomatic resolution, highlighting discussions between the US and Iran in Switzerland aimed at ending the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He noted that further talks are essential to build consensus and implement any future agreements.
US engages in talks with Iran in Switzerland to address Middle East conflict, but who actually has the upper hand?
Who has the upper hand in us Iran peace talks?
Iran has the upper hand, it has forced the US to come to the negotiating table and almost hang its partner, Israel, out to dry. The US miscalculated this war, despite all of Trump’s rhetoric, about having defeated or destroyed every facet of Iranian military, Iran is able to hold back Israeli and US forces. Coupled with Iran’s strategic retaliation on the Gulf states and the impact the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would have on the global economy
JD Vance addresses talks between US and Iran in Switzerland to put an end to the war in the Middle East.
High-level negotiations in Switzerland seeking a permanent end to the Iran war have ended, while technical talks will go on there for the rest of the week. US and Iranian delegation met for high-level talks following the recent signing of a “memorandum of understanding”.
Iranians will not be subservient
However, the Iranian temporarily walked out after threats made by US President Donald Trump. Negotiators will seek to resolve some of the thornier issues between the US and Iran such as Tehran’s nuclear programme and stockpiles of uranium.
Earlier Scott Lucas, Professor of American Studies and Int’l Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin told us that the US is not negotiating with Iran from a position of strength: “The Americans shifted from regime change to regime surrender”, he explains, “trying to bomb their way to get the Iranians to capitulate on a number of conditions.
That failed.” So as the US ruled out ground troops, they had to come “back to the table”. And Lucas said the US really miscalculated with respect to: Iran’s retaliation on the Gulf states and the impact the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would have on the global economy.
One point the Trump administration will claim as a victory is is Iran has agreed to invite UN nuclear inspectors back into the country after mediated negotiations in Switzerland over the weekend laid a “good foundation” for a final deal to end the Middle East war, US Vice President JD Vance said. But how was that any better or different from they had already agreed to.
In this particular case, they may claim the devil is in the detail, but in reality no matter how astute the fine print, the on the ground situation status quo has not changed.
On the flip side, Iran will get $300Bn payment and all their frozen assets released. Something that wasn’t even on the table in 2015.
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October 12, 2024
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‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
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Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
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To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
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November 23, 2024
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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