© REUTERS/ Guillermo Granja
Boratav argues that by touring Chile, Peru and Ecuador, Erdogan seeks to study the concept of establishing a more powerful presidency, and hopes to eventually implement what he learns at home.
Puppet Masters
Boratav argues that by touring Chile, Peru and Ecuador, Erdogan seeks to study the concept of establishing a more powerful presidency, and hopes to eventually implement what he learns at home.
© Reuters / Sputnik
Pope Francis (L), and Patriarch Kirill
Pope Francis (L), and Patriarch Kirill
The meeting between heads the two major Christian churches would be an unprecedented move to mend a millennium-long rift between the Western and Eastern branches of the religion, which started with the Great Schism of 1054.
Persecution of Christians in the modern world is the main issue for the two leaders to discuss, the Russian Orthodox Church said. Christians are among the minorities suffering at the hands of groups adhering to radical Islamist ideology in places like Iraq, Syria and Somalia.
In addition to Cuba, Patriarch Kirill's Latin American tour from February 11-22 includes Paraguay, Chile and Brazil. The meeting with Pope Francis will happen on February 12.
The pontiff will make a stop in Cuba on his way to Mexico.
For the Russian Orthodox Church the meeting will be the biggest foreign affairs event since reuniting in 2007 with the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia after a 90-year split.
© Photo: AP, Sergey Ponomarev
In this 2010 file photo, a line of Russian warships sails during the Navy Day parade in the Ukrainian Black Sea port and the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet of Sevastopol. In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal with Russia extending its lease on the base until 2042.
In this 2010 file photo, a line of Russian warships sails during the Navy Day parade in the Ukrainian Black Sea port and the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet of Sevastopol. In 2010, Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal with Russia extending its lease on the base until 2042.
"The coup d'état in Kiev in February of this year had a specific goal: to neutralize the Russian black sea fleet based in Sevastopol, and replace it with the U.S. fleet", said Maurizio Blondet, in a sensational article published on the website www.effedieffe.com on 29.05.2014.The degree of threat to the vital interests of Moscow clarifies to us why Putin was quick to take Crimea and declare the Peninsula to the Russians. He had irrefutable evidence that the coup in Kiev in February of this year had a specific goal: to neutralize the Russian black sea fleet based in Sevastopol, and replace it with U.S Navy.
On 18th February this year, the Ukrainian Parliament was raided by armed activists of the Svoboda party and Right Sector. On February 22nd, President Yanukovych was forced to leave Kiev, the Pro-Western authorities took power. At the same time, the head of the secret services of Ukraine (SBU) had been appointed - Valentyn Nalyvaichenko. Who is this? An American citizen.
Comment: Makes sense. If true, we can understand the U.S.'s disappointment that all they got from Ukraine was the t-shirt, and a bunch of corrupt oligarchs. No wonder the U.S. hasn't been bending over backwards to give them military and economic support: Russia already took the main prize! For more context, don't miss this one: Crimea: The Way Back Home - EN Subtitles - Full Documentary (VIDEO)
During the debate, she was unable to answer the question of why she received a round sum for doing a few speeches to staff of Goldman Sachs in 2014. "I don't know, that's what they offered, explained Clinton. "Any Secretary of State, as far as I know, did the same thing." She categorically rejected the suspicion of bribery: "Anybody who knows me, who thinks that they can influence me — name anything they've influenced me on. Just name one thing. I'm out here every day saying I'm going to shut them down. I'm going to jail them if they should be jailed".
The publication notes that the suspicion of bribery may very well be unfounded. Hillary and her husband Bill regularly perform at public events for a fee. So, in 2013, Hillary Clinton was paid 200 thousand dollars for a public performance.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to opinion polls, is the leader among Democrats in the fight for the nomination as candidate for President of the United States.
Her main rival among Republicans is the multi-billionaire Donald trump. The United States presidential election will be held on November 8th, 2016.
Comment: Bribe or no bribe, the fact that anyone would pay that kind of money to hear that kind of woman speak is mind-boggling. Future generations will look back and shake their heads that anyone would think it reasonable to pay murderers, war criminals, liars and psychopaths hundreds of thousands of dollars to babble on for an hour or two. In fact, it's so absurd that bribery is probably the only plausible explanation. Like the $100-hammer, it's a plausibly deniable way of making large amounts of money change hands. One hand washes the other! And Killary needs it: her hands are drenched in blood.
Comment: The breaking of the siege in Aleppo province is a big strategic victory. Hopefully the SAA will be able to hold on to this territory, thus effectively blocking the rebels access north, to their supporters and safe havens in Turkey.
© Tim Shaffer / Reuters
After a four-year study, the EPA had issued a June 2015 report that concluded that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could be carried out safely and did not generally pose a threat to water supplies.
"EPA's draft study will give state regulators, tribes and local communities and industry around the country a critical resource to identify how best to protect public health and their drinking water resources," said Thomas Burke, deputy assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Research and Development, according to The Wall Street Journal.
However, Public Herald reports that Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has received 2,309 water complaints from 17 of 40 counties where fracking took place. Of those, 1,275 can now be viewed by the public, thanks to the investigations of non-profit Public Herald. The sheer number of complaints casts a shadow over EPA's claims, since Pennsylvania's official tally of water degradation is only 271 for all 40 fracking counties in the state.
Comment: The report cited by Vox comes from the Pennsylvania Dept of Health, which puts the high lead levels detected in children down to the use of lead paint in older buildings. But this publication by Penn State university clarifies that:
In Pennsylvania, the prevalence of leaded plumbing components and corrosive sources of water suggests that lead contamination is a common problem.Flint, Michigan's water contamination is just the tip of the iceberg. Readers should take it as a given that drinking water is unsafe for drinking in all municipalities across the US.
© flickr / slgckgc
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed into law on Thursday legislation that critics say sells out the state's water supply and democratic process for private profits.
The Water Infrastructure Protection Act, which purportedly aims to address aging infrastructure , allows for fast-tracking of sales of municipal water systems to private entities.
Among the sponsors of the measure, which passed the state legislature in December, was Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), who stated Thursday: "We recognize that there are times when private entities might be most capable of operating, maintaining and upgrading drinking water and sanitary wastewater systems," and keeps "the public's ability to be part of the process."
Quite the opposite, according to the law's critics.
When Anbar and Ninoy tribes raided the city of Mosul back in June 2014, these tribes, followed by ISIS, claimed the victory to itself and overshadowed the influence of the tribes. Iraq was governed by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki who threw the Americans out of Iraq, and opened the doors of cooperation with Iran, so much so that almost every deal between the Prime minister, government cabinet, as well as the major and minor political parties and blocks, whether Sunni, Shi'a, or Kurds, were sketched and brokered in Tehran and Beirut.
Washington stood by as armed opposition against Baghdad grew, especially ISIS. It wanted ISIS to sow the seeds of destruction in Syria and Iraq; these allegations were confirmed by retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in a report he had submitted to the US administration back in 2012.
There is no doubt that Iran's increasing influence in the region harms US interests, and the interests of other regional players. The US moved to contain ISIS but not to destroy it, when it headed towards the oil rich city of Kirkuk, and the Kurdish capital of Erbil, where regional and international interests are present, in the form of military cooperation, and oil extraction contracts, it is also used by the CIA as a launching base for its operations in the region.
Comment: Yup, those ISIS boys are all around useful to a lot of folks. No one wants to run them out of town, except the Syrian people suffering under their rule. No one seems to care about them, except their leader Bashar al-Assad, and Russia, who is doing just that.
The comment by Ya'alon was quite telling. So Israel prefers to hide behind a true terrorist group, rather than risk suffering another humiliating defeat at the hands of Hezbollah, let alone confront Iran, a real military power. Not only that, there's all that cheap, smuggled oil to consider.
Israel the main buyer of ISIS oil — Report
© Aleksey Nikolskyi / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, during his meeting with Minister-President of Bavaria Horst Seehofer at Novo-Ogaryovo, February 3, 2016.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, during his meeting with Minister-President of Bavaria Horst Seehofer at Novo-Ogaryovo, February 3, 2016.
"Extending anti-Russia sanctions was a mistake," said Seehofer, referring to the EU's decision to prolong travel restrictions and economic embargoes against Russian individuals and companies over Ukraine late last year. "We need to consider the reality - they cannot be removed straight away. But we can deploy political means to repeal them... I think that they can be revoked in the foreseeable future."
Journalists returned to the subject of sanctions repeatedly as Seehofer spent an hour answering questions at the final press conference, following the two-day visit during which he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, and signed bilateral trade deals on behalf of his home state.
Seehofer tried to steer clear of incendiary soundbites that could annoy his partners in Berlin, insisting that he "wouldn't remove sanctions this month," and insisting any rapprochement was "conditional on Ukraine and Russia following the terms of the Minsk agreements."
But for all his careful phrases, the trip, unapproved by Merkel, had already conjured up a storm in Germany, with its Russia policy chief Gernot Erler, accusing him of "breaking the EU consensus" and "letting himself be exploited for publicity." Newspaper editorials accused him of "disloyalty" to Merkel, and "meddling" with his unsanctioned overtures.
Comment: The pain Europe feels due to economic sanctions the US insisted be imposed on Russia is getting worse every day. This is another thin but growing number of cracks in the solid front demanded by Washington. How much more is Europe willing to endure before they take action?
- German business leaders voice opposition to anti-Russian sanctions
- More sanctions blowback: EU countries whine that Russian food embargo is hurting their economies
- Russian EU envoy: Critical mass against anti-Russian sanctions being formed in EU
McCain says US to decide when European countries can lift Russian sanctions
© Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik
"Symmetrical measures are unlikely, considering the enormous amount of money that American partners are allocating for this purpose. Next year they intend to allocate four times more than now," the head of the Foreign Ministry's Department of European Cooperation, Andrey Kelin, told RIA Novosti. "We will undertake compensatory measures to maintain a normal military-strategical balance," the diplomat added.
The comment came after mass media reported the United States Department of Defense planned to quadruple its spending in Europe, from $789 million to $3.4 billion. When Defense Secretary Ash Carter presented the plan he emphasized the funds were needed to counter "evolving challenges," including Russian aggression in Europe.
Comment: Further reading:
The decision to quadruple its military presence in Europe puts the US at its highest risk of a nuclear war with Russia, since the Cuban missile crisis of the early 1960s, as during the entire history of the mutual relationship it has never placed its military forces so close to Russia, according to Professor Stephen F. Cohen.
Referring to the recently announced US plan to quadruple its military presence in Europe, political analyst Professor Stephen F. Cohen called it an unprecedented and very dangerous provocation.
"We have never put our military force so close to Russia in the history going back to the 18th century," he said during the John Batchelor Show.
Western aggression: US has its military force closer to Russia than it did during Cold War
Comment: Watch as the Western media twists this event every which way. After Putin, the person they hate most in Russia is Kirill!
Cuba, of course, isn't really 'communist', at least not in the sense that its religion is 'state atheism': two-thirds of Cubans today consider themselves Roman Catholics.
Putting religion aside, the political significance of this meeting, at this time and in this location, is more interesting.
Francis is clearly not playing ball in the 'Isolate Russia Game'.