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Footprints

Best of the Web: Mad Dog Erdogan opens borders to release stream of refugees towards central Europe


RT
Fri, 28 Feb 2020 01:27 UTC

Comment: And he's doing it ... just to spite Putin for not letting him blow Damascus to kingdom come.


Nizip camp
© Reuters/Umit BektasView of Nizip refugee camp near Turkish border in Gaziantep province, Turkey
Turkey is no longer able to contain millions of displaced Syrians and has reached "full capacity," Ankara's ruling AK party said in a fresh threat to open the floodgates into Europe as tensions over Idlib reach boiling point.

With Ankara vowing to go "all in" to halt a Syrian Army offensive to retake Idlib province from rebel militias, AKP spokesman Omer Celik suggested Turkey would soon allow hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to pour into Europe, a threat repeatedly made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the past.

"Turkey can not bear the pressure of the new refugees, we now say that Turkey is at full capacity," Celik told CNNTurk early on Friday. While the spokesman noted Turkey's refugee policy remains "the same," he said "We are no longer in a position to hold refugees" amid an expected influx of newly displaced Syrians.

An earlier report at Reuters cited an unnamed Turkish official who said much the same, although the official went further in stating that police, coast guard and border security officers had been ordered to "stand down" and allow the refugees to cross into Europe.



Comment: Asylum-seekers begin trek to Europe as Turkey opens the floodgates
Turkey has announced it will no longer hold back people who wish to go to Europe and seek asylum there amid an escalation in Syria. Some have been quick to rush towards coasts and borders before Ankara changes its mind.

Would-be irregular immigrants have started trickling closer to Europe. The hopefuls are gathering in the Edirne province, which borders Greece and Bulgaria, as well as on Turkey's Aegean coast close to the Greek island of Lesbos, AFP reported.

Anadolu Agency posted drone footage of groups of people walking across a field in Edirne, presumably filmed in the early hours of Friday morning.


Scenes of people carrying backpacks and waving to the cameras were shown by the Turkish media and spread on social media.



The ability of the potential migrants to reach Europe is not guaranteed even if Turkey does not reverse its decision. Bulgaria and Greece have erected walls along their land borders with Turkey in response to the migrant crisis. The EU stepped up maritime patrols in the Mediterranean to stop people from reaching its territory via sea routes.


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Fireball 5

Best of the Web: Asteroid invasion: Since three years ago, Earth has had an additional moon! - UPDATE

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 02:15 UTC
New Mini-Moon seen orbiting around Earth on February 15, 2020
© Catalina Sky SurveyNew Mini-Moon seen orbiting around Earth on February 15, 2020.
In the skies above Earth, astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey have spotted what might be a new friend: an asteroid temporarily captured by our planet's gravity, what we call a minimoon.


Comment: Perhaps not temporarily! We may be watching history in the making.


It's named 2020 CD3, a small chunk of likely carbonaceous rock between 1.9 and 3.5 metres (6.2 and 11.5 feet) in diameter. And here's the kicker - the rock's trajectory indicates it's been in orbit for around three years already.

The near-Earth neighbourhood is a relatively busy place, with boatloads of asteroids zipping past. The precise numbers, however, are unclear; estimates put the number at millions, but as of February 25, the number discovered was only 22,211.


Comment: Indeed, and it's an increasingly busy place.


That's because asteroids are really small, we don't know where they are (so we don't know where to look), and they typically don't give off a lot of light, even when they're reflecting sunlight.


Comment: Some of them are small, but 'small' is highly relative in outer space.



Comment: "Yay, let's PLAY with it!"

Er, how about we wake up and smell the pooh hitting the fan?

We've long suspected that some (or most) of the 'slow-moving meteors' burning up in the atmosphere of late are in fact asteroids that had been previously captured by Earth's gravity.

The same phenomenon is apparently occurring with respect to other planets in our solar system, whose numbers of 'moons' grow by the year. Those new 'moons' are typically accounted for by 'better observation technology', but clearly the actual numbers of 'moons' are growing...

UPDATE February 28: RT reports that astronomers at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii have released pictures of 2020 CD3. The image is actually a combination of three separate images using three different filters to capture the new moon. Lead astronomer Grigori Fedorets says he expects to find 'a population of these objects once the Rubin Observatory is operational'..and they may indeed!
Earth new moon, 2020 CD3
© Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIARL/AURA/G. Fedorets


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Light Sabers

Best of the Web: Israel bombs Syria: how long can this go on?

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:00 UTC
syria army
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia believe the war on terror has priority over and above any Israeli provocations. Syria and Russia are of necessity avoiding a 'battle between wars', a term used by Israel to sneak in and hit-and-run an enemy target not sufficiently important to trigger an all-out war. Eliminating jihadists on the Aleppo-Idlib front is far more critical to Syria than responding to Israeli attacks on the Syrian army's military capability and its destruction of military warehouses. Israel's military command understands Syria's priorities and is taking advantage of the situation. It has carried out hundreds of attacks in Syria on various targets in different Syrian cities, without changing the balance of forces and capabilities. But stopping Israel's arrogant violations of Syrian sovereignty will become an easy task when Damascus is ready to direct its guns towards Israel.

In fact, despite over 400 Israeli attacks on Syria since the beginning of the war in 2011, the Syrian army has now liberated most of Syria, with the exception of the north, occupied by Turkish and US forces. The Syrian army has moved north, knocking at the gates of Idlib for a month. Israeli attacks have not undermined a Syrian army that has shown its competence in fierce battles at Ghouta (east of Damascus), in Deir-ezzour (north-east) and in the north, clearing a large security perimeter around Aleppo.

Comment: See also:

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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: 'OAS misled public': MIT study finds 'NO evidence of fraud' in Bolivia election that saw Evo Morales ousted in military coup


RT
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 03:48 UTC

Comment: Which means the OAS and Chrystia Freeland's Lima Group rigged it. TEXTBOOK 'meddling in other countries' democratic affairs'...


evo morales
© Reuters / Mariana Greif
A new MIT study has found no evidence of fraud in Bolivia's 2019 election, despite allegations of serious irregularities by the Organization of American States (OAS), which led to the ousting of Evo Morales in a military coup.

John Curiel and Jack R Williams examined the OAS's report and published their findings in the Washington Post on Thursday. "As specialists in election integrity, we find that the statistical evidence does not support the claim of fraud in Bolivia's October election," they wrote.

The MIT researchers said the OAS had adopted a "novel approach to fraud analysis" and that its statistical conclusions would appear to be "deeply flawed."

Comment: Previously:

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Eye 2

Best of the Web: Biden treated Ukraine 'as his private property', says purged prosecutor Shokin on Burisma scandal - UkraineGate documentary


RT
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 21:52 UTC
biden
© REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Former top Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin says he was pushed out under pressure from US Vice President Joe Biden, after he seized the assets of the oligarch behind Burisma, the gas company that employed Biden's son.

President Donald Trump's efforts to investigate Biden's role in getting Shokin fired served as a pretext for his impeachment in the House of Representatives back in December. However, after Trump was acquitted by the Senate, the US media forgot about Burisma — and Ukraine.

French investigative journalist Olivier Berruyer, founder of popular anti-corruption and economics blog Les Crises, did not. In the fourth installment of his documentary series 'UkraineGate: Inconvenient facts,' Shokin reveals why and how he was ousted and what role the US has played in Ukraine.
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Network

Best of the Web: Anglo-American hypocrisy: US & Britain are buying more and more oil from Russia


RT
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 21:40 UTC

Comment: "Do as we say, not as we do!"

They sanction everyone else for trading with Russia, making it cheaper for them to swoop in and cut deals.


oil platform
© REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov
Russia more than doubled crude oil supplies to the United States and Britain in 2019, data from the Federal Customs Service (FCS) has revealed.

A fall in prices for the Russian Urals oil, combined with US sanctions against Venezuela and Iran, were among the reasons for such an increase in purchases.

According to the data cited by business news outlet RBC, in October Russia became the second-largest supplier of oil and petroleum products to the United States. At the end of 2019, crude oil exports from Russia amounted to almost $2.2 billion, 2.4 times more than in 2018. In physical terms, the volume of oil exports from Russia to the US surged from 1.8 million to 4.7 million tons.
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: At least Trump is honest: Let 'adversaries' fight Islamic State while US steals the spoils

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 21:35 UTC
trump
© Reuters / CARLOS BARRIA
Few US presidents have brazenly confessed the underlying motives of American foreign policy like Donald Trump has. But are we getting the full picture, and what's missing from Donald Trump's confessions?

US President Donald Trump did the unthinkable and admitted some much-needed truth about US foreign policy. By declaring that it is time for the US to pass the fight against the terror group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) over to Russia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, while suggesting that the US should instead focus on maintaining control of oil resources in the region, he willingly shone a whole new light on the true motives of the powers-that-be in the Middle East region.

Most notable is his willingness to pass control of the war against IS onto one of his prime arch enemies: Iran. Stating that "Iran hates ISIS and they should do it" is probably the most surprising statement to ever leave Donald Trump's mouth, and that's really saying something.
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Debunking The Smear That Assange Recklessly Published Unredacted Documents

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Thu, 27 Feb 2020 10:48 UTC
julian assange headline news
This is a new section for my newly updated ongoing mega-article Debunking All The Assange Smears, a resource for debating 30 of the most common smears against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Use it, share it, and let me know if there's anything you think should be changed or added.

The prosecution in the Assange extradition trial has falsely alleged that WikiLeaks recklessly published unredacted files in 2011 which endangered people's lives. In reality the Pentagon admitted that no one was harmed as a result of the leaks during the Manning trial, and the unredacted files were actually published elsewhere as the result of a Guardian journalist recklessly included a real password in a book about WikiLeaks.

A key government witness during the Chelsea Manning trial, Brig. Gen. Robert Carr, testified under oath that no one was hurt by them. Additionally, the Defense Secretary at the time, Robert M Gates, said that the leaks were "awkward" and "embarrassing" but the consequences for US foreign policy were "fairly modest". It was also leaked at the time that insiders were saying the damage was limited and "containable", and they were exaggerating the damage in an attempt to get Manning punished more severely.

Comment: Luke Harding is almost certainly British intelligence. Leigh probably is too, although he's now 'retired'. Unfortunately Julian didn't know who he was getting involved with when he first partnered with The Guardian...
Haaretz, 27 Feb 2012

The WikiLeaks press statement also mentions "private intelligence staff who align themselves closely with U.S. government policies and channel tips to the Mossad - including through an information mule in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Yossi Melman, who conspired with Guardian journalist David Leigh to secretly, and in violation of WikiLeaks' contract with the Guardian, move WikiLeaks U.S. diplomatic cables to Israel."
See also:

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Fireball 2

Best of the Web: Eerie green meteor fireball turns night into day over Tucson, Arizona

Anthony Victor Reyes
KVOA Tucson News
Wed, 26 Feb 2020 19:51 UTC
Meteor fireball over Arizona
© YouTube/S Paris (screen capture)
If you looked up at the sky early Wednesday morning, you may have noticed something spectacular. And it definitely wasn't a bird or a plane.

On Wednesday, YouTuber S Paris captured an object zooming through the sky on his dashcam at around 5:30 a.m. In the video's description, S Paris believes the object that came down is a meteor.

With the sun still down, the video showcased a clear visual of the meteor flying through the sky.

According to YouTuber, the video was captured on the southeast side of Tucson.

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Beaker

Best of the Web: A top-tier Chinese virology lab is unable to quell the coronavirus conspiracy theories around it

Jane Li
Quartz.com
Thu, 20 Feb 2020 22:35 UTC

Comment: Suspicions are growing about the centrality of that BSL-4 WHO-approved biolab in Wuhan, China, to the Cornonavirus outbreak, which is why the media is running interference on it...


wuhan biolab
The WHO-certified and affiliated top tier BSL-4 bio-lab in Wuhan city, Hubei Province, central China... where it's almost certain the CoVid-19 virus escaped from
A Chinese state-owned virology lab in Wuhan, the epicenter of China's coronavirus epidemic, is finding it extremely hard to quell conspiracy theories proliferating around the institution — a sign of the sharply decreased level of public trust in the government since the outbreak of the virus.

At the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a subsidiary of the state-owned research institute the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), scientists carry out virus research at a lab with the highest level of biological containment available on the mainland. Its construction was approved in 2003, during China's last deadly coronavirus outbreak, SARS, and completed five years ago, according to Nature journal. The lab came under spotlight in late January, after Chinese scientists said the virus could have a connection to bats via an intermediary, such as some form of game sold at a seafood market in Wuhan. As the lab has researchers who study bat-related viruses, it became a target of online suspicion that coalesced into theories that the virus could have escaped from the lab, or be a bio-weapon gone wrong.


Comment: That isn't why it's suspicious. It's suspicious because those lab researchers were located at Ground Zero of the outbreak: the country's only BSL-4 lab!

All that stuff about bats, snakes, pangolins and the fish/wet market was probably disinformation in an effort to pawn blame for it off onto ordinary people.


Comment: The outbreak is not a 'conspiracy' per se. It's probably an accident. It's only a conspiracy insofar as they're not openly admitting that messing around with vaccines caused the very thing they're supposedly all about preventing.

All to protect the 'settled sciences' (read: biotech industry) of genetics, viruses and vaccines. In reality, they understand very little about the elements they're fiddling with...

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