Speaking at a joint press conference with Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Ersin Tatar on 6 October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the opening of the Varosha embankment. This is a tourist quarter at the southeast coast of Cyprus, which has been closed to the public since 1974 after the occupation of part of Cyprus by Turkish troops and the partition of the island. Varosha is protected by a 1984 UN Security Council resolution.See also: British archaeology falls prey to Turkey's nationalist drive as authorities seize seed collections
"I believe that over the past weeks and months we have jointly managed to bring the contradictions between Turkey and Greece onto the path of diplomacy. I am very glad that with the significant help of the Greek prime minister, some time ago we managed to announce the need for direct talks", Maas said at a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens."So we were extremely surprised by what we have seen over the past few days from the Turkish side - both the opening of the Varosha embankment and the fact that the Oruc Reis departed again [for research]", the diplomat said.© AP/Markus SchreiberGerman Foreign Minister Heiko Maas
Turkey also issued an international Navtex alert late Sunday, according to which the Oruc Reis vessel will conduct research with the Ataman and Cengizhan vessels south of the Greek island of Kastelorizo 12-22 October.
"All this contradicts the spirit of what we agreed on, that is, in an atmosphere of authority and trust, to try to reduce the tension of the conflict by diplomatic means", Maas he said.
The Greek Foreign Ministry said that the area belongs to the Greek continental shelf and is located just 6.5 nautical miles from the coast of Kastelorizo. The territorial waters of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are defined at six nautical miles. Ankara said the vessel operates exclusively on the Turkish continental shelf 15 kilometres off the coast of Turkey and 425 kilometres off the coast of Greece.
Prior to this, seismic surveys of Oruc Reis in the Eastern Mediterranean in an area that Greece considers its exclusive economic zone, led to a sharp deterioration in relations between Athens and Ankara. With the mediation of Germany, an agreement was reached on the resumption of probing contacts with Turkey, interrupted in 2016, and there were plans to hold the 61st round of contacts soon.
There are now fewer than three weeks to go before Election Day, and a handful of states — as usual — will decide the victor on Nov. 3 (or maybe weeks later). But Obama isn't in Wisconsin or Michigan or Pennsylvania or Ohio or Florida, stumping for his former vice president Joe Biden.See also:
His absence is so conspicuous that Team Biden felt the need to address the issue on Tuesday. Democratic National Committee (DNC) released a video showing Obama encouraging voters to "make a plan" to vote this year.
Back in April 2019, when Biden announced he would be running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama issued a statement through spokeswoman Katie Hill."President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made. He relied on the Vice President's knowledge, insight, and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency. The two forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today."But the statement was notably lacking a formal endorsement.
At the time, Biden said he had personally asked Obama not to issue an endorsement. "I asked President Obama not to endorse, and he doesn't want to. Listen, we should — whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits," he said when asked by reporters why Obama had not endorsed him.
President Trump in June claimed that it's "rather a big secret" why former president Barack Obama has not come out and endorsed his vice president, Joe Biden. President Trump taunted in an interview with The Hill outside the Oval Office:"How he doesn't get President Obama to endorse him — there has to be some reason why he's not endorsing him. He was the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. And how President Obama's not endorsing him is rather a big secret. Then he goes and lies and said, 'I asked the president not to endorse me.' Give me a break."The former vice president had cast his candidacy as, essentially, a third term of the Obama administration, pledging to pick up where his former boss left off. But then it was revealed that Obama quietly urged him not to run.
The New York Times wrote in a piece headlined: "Obama's and Biden's Relationship Looks Rosy. It Wasn't Always That Simple.""The two men spoke at least a half dozen times before Mr. Biden decided to run, and Mr. Obama took pains to cast his doubts about the campaign in personal terms. "'You don't have to do this, Joe, you really don't,' Mr. Obama told Mr. Biden earlier this year, according to a person familiar with the exchange."All that has led to questions as to whether Obama really wants Biden to win the White House.
"Sleepy Joe," as Trump likes to call Biden, certainly hopes the charismatic Obama will take to the road to help him, but the 44th president hasn't been all that helpful so far, so only time will tell if he does.
Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News on Wednesday that the committee has been in touch with the person who provided the emails and was in the process of validating the information.What a cesspool of corruption all centered on one family:
"We regularly speak with individuals who email the committee's whistleblower account to determine whether we can validate their claims," Johnson told Fox News. "Although we consider those communications to be confidential, because the individual in this instance spoke with the media about his contact with the committee, we can confirm receipt of his email complaint, have been in contact with the whistleblower, and are in the process of validating the information he provided."
The Post report revealed that Biden, at Hunter's request, met with Vadym Pozharskyi in April 2015 in Washington D.C.
Johnson's committee has been investigating Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings since 2019, and released, last month, an interim report on their monthslong probe into Hunter Biden's role on the board of Burisma and his alleged "extensive and complex financial transactions."
Johnson and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said their investigation has "faced many obstacles" from Democrats on their committees and that executive agencies "failed to comply with document requests."
The chairmen added that "there remains much work to be done" in their probe. Hunter Biden is the son of the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. His work background played a starring role in the Trump impeachment efforts earlier this year. He and his father have denied any wrongdoing related to his work.
The 87-page report stated that Obama administration officials "knew" that Hunter Biden's position on the board of Burisma was "problematic" and that it interfered "in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine."
"This investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama administration ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president's son joined the board of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch," the report's executive summary stated.
Meanwhile, the Post reported Wednesday the emails were part of a trove of data recovered from a laptop which was dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware in April 2019.
The Post reported that other material turned up on the laptop, including a video, which they described as showing Hunter smoking crack while engaged in a sexual act with an unidentified woman, as well as other sexually explicit images.
The FBI reportedly seized the computer and hard drive in December 2019. The shop owner, though, said he made a copy of the hard drive and later gave it to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's lawyer, Robert Costello.
The Post reported that the FBI referred questions about the hard drive and laptop to the Delaware US Attorney's Office, where a spokesperson told the outlet that the office "can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation."
A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not comment on specifics, but instead told the Post that Giuliani "has been pushing widely discredited conspiracy theories about the Biden family, openly relying on actors tied to Russian intelligence."
Comment: China strikes back! From RT: See also: