Breaking: @JoeBiden to announce tonight that U.S. military plans an "emergency mission" to get aid into #Gaza which will include construction of a temporary port in Gaza to receive aid.

Not clear who will construct port but could this mean US boots on the ground? V significant US officials say the pier required for the temporary port will not require US troops on the ground.
Has Israel agreed to build it or will others need to be involved?

Speaking to Jewish community gathering in Washington, President Biden just said he had seen pictures of terrorists beheading children.

“I never really thought that I would see, and have confirmed, pictures of terrorists beheading children, I never thought I would ever, anyway..” There is a question over whether the President stumbled the word ‘see’ and then corrected it by adding ‘have confirmed’ - suggesting perhaps he hadn’t actually seen the images but he still appeared, in unscripted remarks, to confirm beheadings.

🇮🇱🦠Some interesting data & info from Israel this morning... some of it positive but some which runs counter to the vaccine success story here so far.

✖️There’s been slow down in uptake of 💉. As younger people become eligible they’re seemingly less interested in it.
[thread]👇 ✖️The R number has been steadily increasing despite the lockdown. It’s currently just <1.

✖️This is attributed to the variants. PM @netanyahu said last night that 80% of cases are currently linked to 🇬🇧 strain. (It’s also plainly because lockdown is appallingly adhered to) /2

A mass vaccination programme for #Palestinian health workers + the over 60s & vulnerable people in the #WestBank has begun.

Palestinian medical staff on the frontline have spent the day vaccinating each other with the newly acquired doses. [thread] A consignment of 2000 Moderna jabs were supplied by Israel on Monday & began to be administered to medical workers today.
It will take several months, with regular supplies, to vaccinate the population.

🇮🇱 At the start of the #coronavirus pandemic, #Israel was seen as a beacon of how to contain it with a stick lockdown. It worked.
But did it just delay the inevitable?
According to @JohnsHopkins research, 🇮🇱 now has the *highest infection rate per capita in the world*. [thread] The gov appointed corona commissioner said recently: “The state of sickness in 🇮🇱 is among worst & most complicated in the world.”
The combination of different cultures + particular desire within some Jewish & Muslim societies for mass gatherings has contributed to situation.

🍴🥗🥪🍷🍺Bars & restaurants in many countries remain closed because of #Coronavirus.
There are plans across Europe, Middle East, Australasia to open soon.
Israel is among a few who have pressed ahead. Restaurants/bars allowed to open from yesterday so how’s it working? [thread] There are strict rules for 🇮🇱restaurants.
❌Establishments with capacity or <100 can operate at 100%. >100 must operate at 85%.
❌1.5m distance between tables
❌🪑🧂must be fully disinfected between customers
❌Tables only set after customers seated
❌ Menus must be disposable

🇮🇱 History will be made in Israel today as Prime Minister @netanyahu walks into Jerusalem’s District Court to become the country’s first sitting leader to go on trial.
3 years of investigations, 3 separate cases & 3 elections. A witch-hunt says the PM; an attempted coup. The charges against @netanyahu:
❌Case 1000 - The Gifts Affair: Fraud & breach of trust
❌Case 2000 - The Media Affair: Fraud & breach of trust
❌Case 4000 - The Bezeq Affair: Bribary, fraud & breach of trust

For weeks, there’ve been warnings about what might happen when #Coronavirus reaches #Yemen.
It is now officially spreading inside the country. @SkyNews has filmed images of graves being dug at a worrying pace & we’ve spoken to @jnbeuze - the head of the @UNHCRYemen [thread] .@jnbeuze told @SkyNews that the presence of #COVID19 in #Yemen + the impact the virus is having on the economies of wealthy donor countries presents a devastating DUAL BLOW for the country.
He warns that 3.6m displaced people + 280,000 refugees will lose their aid.

In March a man was shot dead on the Turkey/Greece border.

Who was he? Why was he there? Who killed him?

@skynews has collaborated with @bellingcat @LHreports @ForensicArchi & @derspiegel to find answers to a case dismissed at the time as #FakeNews news.sky.com/story/death-on… You can watch the full in-depth investigation by @ForensicArchi @LHreports and @bellingcat here bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…

I just travelled with the family back home to Jerusalem after 5 weeks in the UK.
It was a bit of an eye-opener.
Deserted airports, #COVIDー19 tests, the seeming impossibility of social-distancing on planes, the awkward conversations...
Some reflections and 📸 in this *thread* An empty @HeathrowAirport T4 is unnervingly eerie. Just two flights on the departure board; all shops shuttered; the departure hall (a third of a mile long) deserted. A global economy on pause... in pictures.

🎥🇹🇷🇬🇷 Video emerges of migrants being shot, injured & in one case killed on Turkish/Greek border.
The video is graphic.
The Turkish governor says the shots were fired by Greek border guards. 6 injured - 3 in legs/feet, 1 in groin, 1 in leg, 1 in chest - he later died. This is the statement from the Turkish authorities - the governor of Edirne. It details the injuries. The Greek authorities have, at times of tweet, not responded to the allegations.

🎥 In NE Syria, the Turkish-Russian creation of ‘safe zone’ having defeating effect.

2hrs ago @SkyNews watched Russian/Turk convoy pass through a village; pelted w/ stones. Military responded w/ tear gas. 1 villager run over by vehicle as he tried to climb onto it. He later died In every village they pass through the Turkish military are pelted with rocks.

In some villages the locals put rocks across the road to slow down the convoy.

In the incident we witnessed, the military responsed with tear gas at close range.

The latest from @SkyNews in 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia after attack on 2 huge oil facilities:
📍@SecPompeo arrives later
📍It’s expected he‘ll present new evidence implicating Iran
📍🇸🇦 Defence Ministry preparing to release evidence implicating Iran - significant shift in strategy [Thread] 🔴 Breaking:
📍We’re told @modgovksa will present material evidence including weapons, proving Iranian involvement
📍If 🇸🇦 does explicitly name Iran, it would would represent shift by Gulf Arab states who’ve been reluctant to name #Iran for any attacks like those on tankers /2

So @BorisJohnson’s kipper story turns out to be cobblers.
@EU_Commission confirms that it’s UK not EU rules that determine how the kipper is transported:
“The case described by Mr Johnson falls outside the scope of the EU legislation and it's purely a UK national competence.' One thing I am still getting to the bottom of is - the Isle of Man isn’t in the UK. So maybe the kipper is subject to Manx rules.
Can you clarify @IOMGovernment?
Either way, it’s not Brussels to blame.

I’ve spent some time talking to Brussels folk about the @Conservatives leadership contest.
Officials won’t interfere & so won’t speak on the record.
But from my conversations their views tally with well-respected insiders who can talk to @SkyNews - pointed words in this thread I spoke to @piris_jc who was the Director-General of the EU Council’s legal service for 23 years.
I spoke to @AgataGostynska who is a senior research fellow at the @CER_EU
I spoke to @ph_lamberts who is a senior MEP and a member of the @Europarl_EN’s #Brexit Steering Group

NEW: Following plenty of nudges from @eucopresident that patience and a long extension is the sensible #Brexit option... today, Donald Tusk‘s team will today formally tell EU officials from member countries to endorse a long extension until *31 March 2020* /1 A senior EU official has told me that Mr Tusk told officials from the 27 remaining EU countries yesterday that “The only reasonable way out would be a long but flexible extension. I would call it a 'flextension'.... /2

Sources in EU institutions v clear tonight that Brexit extension to May 22 (which was first offered at the last EU summit & is back in play if TM can convince EU that her new plan can deliver the deal) is ONLY an option if the UK commits to European Elections. /1 The reason for this is simple.

If her plan doesn’t work & deal not done by 22/5 then there is a legally unavoidable cliff-edge ‘no deal’ at midnight on 22nd.

Why? Because the UK can’t remain a member if it hasn’t taken part in European Parliament elections. /2

NEW: @theresa_may is to request only 'short delay' to Brexit in letter to EU a government source has told @tamcohen. [thread]
news.sky.com/story/theresa-… It’s understood her original preference was to ask EU for a short extension which could be lengthened if needed, or a long one with a break clause in it.
But @MichelBarnier told me yesterday that it’s short or long, not both.

With two hours to go until the meaningful vote, some thoughts on what happens next - assuming she loses but by a smaller margin than the first meaningful vote (when she lost by 230) [Thread] /1 .@theresa_may will decide (if she survives the next 10 days) to come back with a 3rd meaningful vote in the coming days - probably after next week’s European Summit.

Sources in on the EU side expect her to “come knocking at the door once more.”

But: “Our pockets are empty” /2

Ahead of @theresa_may’s latest visit to Brussels, where are we with #Brexit?!

A not-so-short thread which I hope simplifies a seemingly never-ending process but one which could have an abrupt end in less than 40 days. /1 Some context first: The key problem is the backstop - the Irish Protocol to us its proper name

It’s a section of the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) - a 585-page legal text which, together with a shorter Political Declaration (PD), forms the divorce treaty between UK & the EU. /2

It was a busy night for the👩‍🍳👨‍🍳 at Her Majesty’s ambassador’s residence in Brussels last night.

The opulent residence, on Rue Ducale, was the venue for two separate but simultaneous dinners - one we knew about. The other, a curious meeting, we didn’t...[thread] /1 The first of the two dinners was publicly billed - it was #Brexit Secretary @SteveBarclay’s first meeting with EU’s Chief Brexit negotiator @MichelBarnier.
It’s the consequence of @theresa_may’s return to Brussels last week for her meeting with @JunckerEU /2