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© Reuters/China DailyA Sukhoi jet fighter Su-24.
The deal reportedly involves a lease/lend of twelve Sukhoi Su-24 all-weather attack aircraft, which NATO calls "Fencer A". The jets will be able to do air patrols over the Falklands' capital, Port Stanley. According to the tabloid, Ministry of Defense officials fear Buenos Aires will take delivery of the planes well before the 2020 deployment of the Navy's 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its F-35B fighters, leaving a "real window of vulnerability."
Up to 1,500 troops, backed by a naval warship that visits throughout the year, are permanently based on the Falklands, along with four RAF Typhoon jets, plus anti-aircraft and artillery batteries.
Comment: Another kick from Master Putin!
© AFP Photo / Kena Betancur
The Palestinian Authority could also schedule a date for applying to join the International Criminal Court and other international agencies, negotiator Saeb Erekat said, adding that officials would hold a "very serious meeting" on Wednesday.
"There will be no more waiting, no more hesitation, no more slowdown," Erekat said. "We are going to meet and make decisions."
Fatah's Central Committee and the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will decide whether to sign the Rome Statute by the ICC, a senior Palestinian source told the Times of Israel.
© Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesActivists in Berlin protesting for more information about the cooperation between the National Security Agency and the German federal intelligence service hold a banner calling for former NSA employee Edward Snowden to come to Germany to testify in this September file photo.
In an address to Parliament last year, Merkel warned that U.S.-German cooperation would be curtailed and declared that "trust needs to be rebuilt."
But the cooperation never really stopped. The public backlash over Snowden often obscured a more complicated reality for Germany and other aggrieved U.S. allies. They may be dismayed by the omnivorous nature of the intelligence apparatus the United States has built since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but they are also deeply dependent on it.
Over the past year, Germany has secretly provided detailed information to U.S. spy services on hundreds of German citizens and legal residents suspected of having joined insurgent groups in Syria and Iraq, U.S. and German officials said.
Comment: It is interesting to observe how Germany justifies its policies to be a subordinate to the US over useless, manufactured US intelligence.
© ReutersBritain's Prince Andrews
The woman involved in the case, who has not been named, told a court in Florida she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew multiple times by disgraced US multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
The statement is part of a wider case against Epstein, who is accused of "loaning out" the then-teenager to his friends and associates.
Comment: A representative for Prince Andrews once stated it was "unwise" for him to associate with Epstein, a convicted pedophile. But both were part of a much larger network of pedophiles and sex offenders, otherwise known as high-ranking politicians, who are categorically "unwise":
- The former president [Bill Clinton] was friends with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier who was arrested in 2008 for soliciting underage prostitutes
- A new lawsuit has revealed how Clinton took multiple trips to Epstein's private island where he 'kept young women as sex slaves'
- Clinton was also apparently friends with a woman who collected naked pictures of underage girls for Epstein to choose from
- He hasn't cut ties with that woman, however, and invited her to Chelsea's wedding
- Epstein has a host of famous friends including Prince Andrew who stayed at his New York mansion AFTER his arrest
Also see:
- The pedophilia scandals that swallowed Britain whole
- UK Establishment: Unmasking psychopathic faces - Pedophilia and murder in VERY high places
© Reuters / Stefan Wermuth
The English-language Inspire magazine was established in 2010, and is believed to be an Al-Qaeda publication in the Arabian Peninsula. Set up to influence Western jihadists with little or no command of Arabic, the magazine is alleged to be the brainchild US jihadist preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in 2011.
Sheikh Nasr Al-Ainsi, writing in the latest edition on Christmas Day, tells readers that 'lone mujahedeen' are the "West's worst nightmare".
The article, "Destination airport, and Guess What's on the Menu?" gives tips to potential jihadists on how to make a bomb, evade airport security and then publicize their actions. The writers also outline potential targets.
Comment: It will be interesting to see what the CIA will deliver to its citizens from its 'menu'.
© Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images All for one.
The RSS has visibly grown in power and ambition in the seven months since the arrival of a new government -- unsurprisingly, as it counts among its past members the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, as well as many old and new chief ministers in the states. With this carefully calculated provocation under a regime sympathetic to its ideology, the nongovernmental organization is seeking victories in many arenas.
In the realm of law, the RSS wants the passage of a stringent nationwide bill that would ban religious conversions. In the public sphere, it has arrogated the right to pronounce not just on the future of minorities in India but that of India's Hindu majority as well. In the war of the religions, it seeks to spread the news that there is now a Hindu fundamentalism eager to goad and trump well-established Christian and Islamic fundamentals in India and around the world. And among its own vast cadre, it has generated the sense that it, much more than the government of the day or the diverse institutions of civil society and business, holds the keys to India's future.
Comment: RSS is fundamentalist organization that was created to represent the non-secular Hindus to counter the overwhelmingly secular independence-movement leadership during British colonial days. India's secular foundations go back 2300 years, from the Mauryan empire to the British empire, which ruled for 89 years and found it easy to keep it that way, though they converted few with economic and administrative incentives.
Modi, who meticulously eliminated the influential patriarchs of his political party from power is in a "pickle". If he openly opposes the Hindutva, he will give more power to rebellious Hindu fundamentalists and other disgruntled BJP leaders. If he supports it openly, the country will face communal flames. This will be Modi's toughest challenge with no easy solutions. For most Indians, it is politics as usual with religious connotations.
Can Modi soften the RSS stance? Only time will tell.
Sensational headings like "A new vision of India, 100 percent Hindu" from Western media will give more credit to RSS than it deserves and it serves their agenda well.
© Unknown
Which satellites do you recognize? Any favorites? Landsat has been around forever providing absolutely gorgeously surreal views of home, while RapidScat is a brand-new arrival glommed onto the International Space Station. I admit I have a soft spot for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO2) after watching it eventually launch last summer. The Global Precipitation Monitor doesn't take photographs so much as continuously track rain and snow in detail that is boggling to behold. I only have a passing familiarity with Soumi NPP - that's the satellite that contributed the base-image for Earth Selfie Day, which is more than I can say about CloudSat, an experimental radar project I've never encountered.
Comment: NASA is spying on everything, except what matters the most - asteroids, meteors. It may be monitoring them secretly, but they publicly claim that they have no funds for it.
© Unknown
Of course, Yankee imperialism gave with one hand, and took with the other. The day after the Cuba announcement, president Obama signed legislation imposing sanctions against the Venezuelan [6] government. Instead of asking why the United States would help Cuba but punish its biggest benefactor, Americans are celebrating what they hope is a return to Cuba's status as a de facto American colony.
Anyone who depended on the inane exultations from the corporate media and so-called leftists would think that Cuba ceased to exist from January 1, 1959 until now. They speak as if it has remained in a state of suspended animation, not waking up until the United States woke it with a kiss, as if in a fairy tale. While Americans think that Cubans exist as relics like cars from the 1950s, that nation has succeeded in achieving a number of accomplishments which Americans refuse to acknowledge. Of course that is easy to do if revolutionary Cuba isn't thought of as a real nation, which is as much as the average American mind can fathom.
Comment: So, did the Cuban government betray Putin, who earlier this year announced to forgive $32 billion, 90% of their debt to Russia by moving towards U.S hegemony? Or are they trying to outmaneuver the Empire of Chaos? It's hard to say at this point because it's unlikely that Cuba would decline this offer, because canceling the embargo has been one of their main goals for over 50 years. It's clear that United States won't give up its efforts for counterrevolution and through this deal they may now have more influence inside Cuba. We'll have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, check also these articles:
© UnknownSecretary eneral of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri
Secretary General of Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri said there was compelling evidence that the coalition's aircraft threw arms and aid to the extremist group in the Salahuddin province in north-central Iraq.
He also said the coalition had failed to clear any area from the ISIL militants, adding that volunteer forces only relied on local support in their clean-up and liberation operations against the terrorists.
Ameri added the volunteer forces would soon secure areas in Salahuddin and Kirkuk, which remain in the hands of the ISIL.
The ISIL terrorists control some parts of Iraq and Syria. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control. They have terrorized and killed people of all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.
Since August, the US and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against what they say are ISIL positions in Iraq. Some members of the US-led coalition also started bombarding 'ISIL targets' inside Syria in September.
However, the raids have so far failed to dislodge the Takfiri group.
Comment: In sum, prepare for more of the same. And to get an idea of what that 'same' really is, just watch this:
- Suffering together: The hell in Donbass, brought to you by the U.S.
Don't miss this the previous documentary by the same filmmaker, either: