The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Takfiri group has posted a video on the web, threatening to invade and take over Spain. The minute-long footage shows two Spanish-speaking men saying Spain is the land of their forefathers and that they are prepared to die for their nascent Islamic State. The men said the ISIL would not stop at Spain and intends to spread its Islamic Caliphate across the world. “I say to the entire world as a warning: We are living under the Islamic banner, the Islamic Caliphate. We are going to die for it until we liberate all the occupied lands, from Jakarta to Andalusia,” one of the men said.

Some 20 warships, over 20 airplanes and helicopters, as well as the marines and coast artillery are taking part in the Black Sea Fleet exercise, Russian Defense Ministry reported. The war games launched the same day as NATO's military drill in the area. ● Starting from July 4, the scheduled training maneuvers are conducted in the whole of the Black Sea, the Ministry told journalists on Friday, adding the drill is being carried out according to international standards. "The exercise plan involves performance of a number of combat training missions, including destruction of enemy naval forces at sea and organizing naval and coastal air defense," the Ministry explained. Under command of Admiral Aleksandr Vitko, the Russian military of the Black Sea Fleet will also exercise in the search, detection and destruction of imaginary enemy submarines. Coordinated actions between naval forces, coastal units and aviation are being practiced within the maneuvers.

While it appears there is a commitment to a multilateral ceasefire in the country, the fighting continues. Is Kiev's "anti-terrorist operation" in eastern Ukraine generating results beyond the killing of civilians? Is Poroshenko likely to fail as Ukraine's new president? And where does Ukraine go from here? CrossTalking with Alexander Nekrassov, John Robles and Padraig Belton.

Land parcels will be given out for free to the servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other military formations, as well as to the employees of Interior Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine that are defending territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country in eastern and southeastern regions of Ukraine.

Former PM criticised over link to United Arab Emirates-funded programme that promises lucrative 'business opportunities' ● Tony Blair has agreed to advise the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who came to power in a military coup last year, as part of a programme funded by the United Arab Emirates that has promised to deliver huge "business opportunities" to those involved, the Guardian has learned. The former prime minister, now Middle East peace envoy, who supported the coup against Egypt's elected president Mohamed Morsi, is to give Sisi advice on "economic reform" in collaboration with a UAE-financed taskforce in Cairo – a decision criticised by one former ally. The UAE taskforce is being run by the management consultancy Strategy&, formerly Booz and Co, now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers, to attract investment into Egypt's crisis-ridden economy at a forthcoming Egypt donors' conference sponsored by the oil-rich UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Seumas Milne ■ Blair embodies corruption and war. He must be sacked
Sam Kriss ■ Tony Blair, dread creature of the forbidden swamp

How to start World War 3? Step 1) Hack IDF Twitter account; Step 2) Tweet that Israel's secret nuclear facility has suffered a potential leak after shelling; Step 3) wait for US response... It appears (though for now has not been confirmed) that the Israel Defense Force's Twitter account was hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army who then tweeted "#WARNING: Possible nuclear leak in the region after 2 rockets hit Dimona nuclear facility" The Tweet was deleted soon after - not before all major newswires picked it up - and the report has been denied by the IDF. We can only imagine the market response to this tweet if US traders were not all out buying beers and burgers...[H/T: Xymphora]

Saed Bannoura ■ Israeli soldiers published dozens of pictures on social media networks calling for murdering the Arabs, and murderous acts of what they described as “revenge” against any person who is an Arab. Most of the pictures that spread widely in recent days are actually for soldiers on active military duty, carrying Israeli-issued weapons, and calling on their government and political leadership “to declare an open season” for killing the Arabs. One of the soldiers even called for “exterminating all Arabs” in a picture he posted, the Arabs48 news website has reported. Most of the pictures published by the fanatic soldiers are “selfies”, taken by the soldiers themselves, in addition to pictures of military uniforms, weapons, and chains, and many wrote on the pictures threatening words such as revenge, or “what we want is revenge”, and some even wrote “give us the chance to wipe them out”.

[Arnon Sofer]: “If we don’t kill, kill and kill, all day, every day, we will cease to exist” - Video
PressTV: Israeli settlers seriously injure Palestinian youth
Failed Messiah: Rabbi Calls For Murder Of Hundreds If Not Thousands Of Arabs "As Revenge"
Kevin Barrett ■ US should declare independence from Israel and Saudi Arabia

Selfie of Mohammed Abukhdair, the Palestinian teen who was kidnapped and tortured to death by Israeli settlers. RIP. [H/T: Xymphora] + Failed Messiah: Who Murdered 16-Year-Old Mohammed Abu Khdeir? More And More, It Looks Like Right Wing Jews Did

Barry Grey ■ Thousands demonstrate at funeral of slain Palestinian youth || Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated Friday at the funeral in East Jerusalem of the 16-year-old youth kidnapped and murdered Wednesday in an evident revenge killing by ultra-right Jewish nationalists. The throng carried aloft the coffin of Muhammad Hussein Abu Khudair and shouted slogans calling for a new “Intifada,” or popular uprising, against Israeli repression. Israeli riot police massed along the route of the funeral march in the Shuafat neighborhood where Khudair lived and was abducted while waiting at a shop near his home to go to morning prayers. The police attacked demonstrators with stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets. The Red Crescent said some 30 Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces. Dozens more were treated for tear gas inhalation. Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters also occurred in other parts of East Jerusalem, including the neighborhoods of Ras al-Amud and Wadi al-Joz. There were also incidences of rock-throwing by Palestinian youth and Israeli police reprisals near the Al Aqsa Mosque complex, which the government had closed to all men under 50 years of age. A video widely circulated on the Internet shows two Israeli police savagely beating a Palestinian demonstrator who is lying helpless on the ground, then dragging him away.

Not even we anticipated this particular "unintended consequence" as a result of the US multi-billion dollar fine on BNP (which France took very much to heart). Moments ago, in a lengthy interview given to French magazine Investir, none other than the governor of the French National Bank Christian Noyer and member of the ECB's governing board, said this stunner at the very end, via Bloomberg: NOYER: BNP CASE WILL ENCOURAGE ‘DIVERSIFICATION’ FROM DOLLAR