Israel razes most of Palestinian Bedouin village in largest demolition in years

Relief agencies visited Khirbet Humsah and recorded 76 demolished structures, "more than in any other single demolition in the past decade," the U.N. said.

JORDAN VALLEY, West Bank — Israel has demolished most of a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, displacing 73 Palestinians — including 41 children — in the largest such demolition in years, residents and a United Nations official said.

Tented homes, animal shelters, latrines and solar panels were among the structures destroyed in the village of Khirbet Humsah on Tuesday, according to the U.N. official.

Israel's military liaison agency with the Palestinians, COGAT, confirmed that a demolition had been carried out against what it said were illegal structures.

Jafaar Ashtiyeh / AFP - Getty Images

By Thursday morning the residents had already moved back to the site, using tents donated by Palestinian aid groups, according to a Reuters witness.

The remains of the demolished village lay across the hillsides, with just two of the original homes still standing some distance from the others.

"They want to expel us from the area so that settlers can live in our place, but we will not leave from here," said resident Harbi Abu Kabsh, referring to the roughly 430,000 Israeli settlers who live alongside three million Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel captured in a 1967 war.

The Bedouins are descendants of nomadic tribes and many live in makeshift encampments lacking electricity, sewage or running water.

COGAT on Wednesday issued a statement saying that an "enforcement activity" had been carried out by Israeli forces "against 7 tents and 8 pens which were illegally constructed, in a firing range located in the Jordan Valley."

Source: NBC

Brexit: Welsh farmers too reliant on exporting to the EU

Welsh farmers are too reliant on exporting to the EU, the international trade secretary has suggested.

With more than 90% of lamb exports destined for Europe, Liz Truss says "all the eggs are in one basket".

She said it showed the importance of opening up other markets around the world, something the UK government was "working hard" to achieve.

Ms Truss told the NFU Cymru conference that the country would "thrive" with or without an EU trade deal .

The union's president John Davies stressed that the continental market was of "supreme importance" to the Welsh farming industry.

"There is much to do and very little time if the UK government is to ensure a favourable trade deal with the EU.

"We cannot afford to face eye watering tariffs, even for a short time, on the bulk of our agri food exports."

Customs checks and other administrative burdens that could place "friction" on the movement of goods were also a cause for concern, he said.

A no-deal Brexit could happen if the "wide divergences" between the UK and the EU are not sorted before the new year .

Ms Truss insisted the government wanted "a good deal with the EU" and said it was in Europe's interest to agree one.

"In terms of agricultural produce, the EU exports three times as much to us as we do to them," she said.

"But in any negotiation you cannot just simply agree to the terms the other party is putting forward and you need to be prepared to walk away if the terms aren't favourable.

"My job as international trade secretary is to make sure there are plenty of other markets for Welsh producers to sell into."

There were "real benefits" in a recent trade deal struck with Japan, which would see the government launch a promotional drive involving Welsh lamb, with efforts also under way across the Middle East, USA, New Zealand and Australia.

Ms Truss said there was a growing demand for high quality protein across Asia which Wales was in a "very good position" to supply.

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart said it should not be underestimated "what a fantastic effort is being made" on behalf of food producers.

He said negotiations with the EU were in "all likelihood... going to go down to the wire - but that should not be a cause for panic."

Mr Hart claimed it was "the natural course" of negotiations all over the world and there was "no need for us to speculate now that it will end unhappily".

UK Conservatives Push for Watchdog to Counter Chinese Interference

Britain should set up a specialist watchdog focusing on countering foreign interference operations by hostile states such as China, a group of Conservative Party lawmakers has suggested.

The China Research Group, which was founded in April by a group of Conservative MPs who advocate for a tougher UK position on the Chinese regime, called for the establishment of such a body in its first published report, which was released on Monday.

The paper, which was authored by Charles Parton OBE, a veteran diplomat who spent 22 years working in or on China, argues Britain needs to recognise that there’s a “values war” with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and must reset its China strategy without delay.

Parton said the values war “is patently incompatible with the concept of a ‘Golden Era’” of Sino-British relations, which was championed by former Prime Minister David Cameron and former Chancellor George Osborne.

“Moving back from the ‘Golden Era’ to a more balanced relationship with China will involve some pain,” Parton wrote. “The CCP’s instincts are to bully. Yet the readjustment must be gone through.”

The report argues that the UK should “take a leaf out of Australia’s book and set up a National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator’s Office”, which coordinates the country’s whole-of-government efforts to respond to acts of foreign interference.

According to the report, the remit of Britain’s Joint State Threat Assessment Team (JSTAT), which was set up in 2017 in the Security Service, is not wide enough, as it currently only focuses on “espionage, assassination, interference in our democracy, threats to the UK’s economic security, and the UK’s people and assets overseas”.

The JSTAT should look at broader CCP interference so as to adequately assess the threat from the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), and should be sufficiently staffed and resourced to deal with the size and nature of the problem, the report suggests.

Chinese soldiers work at computers.

The UFWD coordinates the Party’s “United Front Work”, which involves the efforts of thousands of overseas groups that carry out political influence operations, suppress dissident movements, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China.

As the UK government conducts a comprehensive review of its foreign, security, and defence policy, a number of British security officials have recently identified the Chinese regime as a major threat.

Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull, the chief of defence intelligence, told British media in September that the Chinese regime “poses the greatest threat to world order”.

Gen. Sir Nick Carter, Britain’s chief of the defence staff, said China is seeking to “achieve dominance in the space and cyber domains,” and to defeat the West through attacks “below the threshold of war”.

MI5 Director-General Ken McCallum said last month that national security challenges presented by China and other hostile states are “growing in severity and in complexity”.

McCallum said the Chinese regime has sought to hack commercially sensitive data and intellectual property as well as to interfere in British politics, and has also been caught engaging in an espionage plot aimed against the European Union.