5: 

Pentagon Wants More U.S. Troops to Fight ISIL in Iraq and Syria

An unnamed senior Obama administration official has told The New York Times that President Obama is willing to consider raising the stakes in both Iraq and Syria. This comes amid repeated calls from the Pentagon to deploy more U.S. troops to fight the self-proclaimed Islamic State. There are currently 3,700 U.S. troops in Iraq and a handful of Special Operations forces in Syria.

Democracy Now!

4: 

Masked men in Stockholm threaten to ‘punish’ refugee children

A gang of masked men have been detained in Stockholm after distributing leaflets threatening to punish “north African street children roaming” the Swedish capital.

Police said one man had been charged with assaulting a police officer and the others had been charged with wearing a mask in public, which is illegal in Sweden, and for causing a public disturbance.

A police spokesman told local media the men detained were believed to have gathered “with the purpose of attacking refugee children”.

According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, up to 100 masked men marched into central Stockholm on Friday to hand out leaflets carrying the message “It’s enough now” and threatening to give the “north African street children who are roaming around” the “punishment they deserve”.

The Guardian

3: 

Turkey says Russian jet invaded its airspace despite warnings

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has called for a meeting with Vladimir Putin after a Russian jet violated Turkey’s airspace near the Syrian border. Turkey claims that a Russian fighter jet ignored radar warnings not to violate its airspace on Friday.

Officials have claimed that the Su-34 jet ignored several warnings delivered both in Russian and in English by radar units before travelling into Turkish airspace. Erdoğan said on Saturday: “I told our foreign ministry to convey my desire to meet Mr Putin personally. There has been no answer on this yet.”

The incident prompted Ankara to call in the Russian ambassador for an emergency meeting.

“This violation is a concrete indication of Russia’s acts aiming to escalate problems, despite the clear warning by our country and by Nato,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said. “We openly and clearly call on Russia to act responsibly so that the Turkish air space, which is a Nato airspace, is not violated. We stress once again that all the responsibility for any unwanted grave consequences as a result of any such irresponsible behaviour will belong entirely to the Russian Federation,” the statement said.

However, Russian officials have dismissed the claims as “baseless propaganda”. Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: “There has not been a single violation of Turkish airspace by Russia air force planes in Syria.

“The Turkish declarations concerning the alleged violation of its airspace by a Russian Su-34 are baseless propaganda.”

The Guardian 

2: 

US anti-Islamic bills create ‘environment of fear’

A state politician’s bill to bar foreign laws, including Islamic law, from South Carolina’s courts is an unnecessary move that fuels anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, rights groups say.

Introduced by State Representative Harry “Chip” Limehouse, a member of the right-wing Republican party, the bill proposes to bar Islamic jurisprudence and other forms of international defences in state courts.

Limehouse’s bill was passed by a vote of 68-42 in the House branch of South Carolina’s legislature. In order to become law, it still needs to be passed by the state Senate.

Aljazeera

1: 

SPIES IN THE SKY

AMERICAN AND BRITISH INTELLIGENCEsecretly tapped into live video feeds from Israeli drones and fighter jets, monitoring military operations in Gaza, watching for a potential strike against Iran, and keeping tabs on the drone technology Israel exports around the world.

Under a classified program code-named “Anarchist,” the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, working with the National Security Agency, systematically targeted Israeli drones from a mountaintop on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. GCHQ files provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden include a series of “Anarchist snapshots” — thumbnail images from videos recorded by drone cameras. The files also show location data mapping the flight paths of the aircraft. In essence, U.S. and British agencies stole a bird’s-eye view from the drones.

The Intercept